She Fell Hook, Line and Sinker
by x-backtoblack-x
Summary: From the very first time Sarah pointed the new girl out to Alison across the crowded lunch hall Alison felt herself drawn to the athletic brunette. Falling for Beth Childs though was never going to be plain sailing.
1. Chapter 1

Alison picked up her lunch tray and scanned the lunch hall around her, looking for a place to sit. There were several options open to her. She could sit beside Aynsley and her other theatre friends, though she quickly realised she wasn't in any productions at the moment so there was no need for her to force herself to like them two faced bitches. Her eyes caught Donnie's next, though she quickly averted them. The boy had been in love with her since third grade, and already tried to be her partner in every class project. She didn't need to give him another reason to pine.

Eventually her eyes settled on a table near the middle of the hall and she smiled, instantly stepping towards it.

"Oh Alison thank god," Cosima smiled when Alison slid in on the bench across from her. "I was starting to feel like a total loner sitting here by myself."

"Yea, where is everyone?" Alison frowned, her head darting quickly from side to side before she looked back at her friend for answers.

Cosima shrugged, opening her mouth to reply when she was unceremoniously interrupted as Sarah slid in on the bench next to Alison and began to speak over her.

"Check out the new girl," the British girl murmured appreciatively, her accent strong in spite of the fact she'd moved here when the girls were in second grade.

"Oh, where?" Cosima questioned, immediately forgetting that she'd been interrupted.

"She's over there sitting with Paul, Art and Angie," Sarah replied, tilting back her head to the "jock" table two rows behind them and one row across.

Alison dared a quick glance over her shoulder and her eyes found the new face instantly. She didn't look new though; in fact she already looked like she belonged as she engaged in animated conversation with Art.

There was something about her Alison couldn't quite put her finger on. The way she laughed and seemed to talk over Art gave the impression that she was loud and confident in a way Alison most certainly wouldn't approve of usually. She also had her hair thrown up in a messy ponytail that would normally leave Alison's eye twitching with a desire to fix, and she'd obviously thrown on the first thing she'd found on her bedroom floor – I mean those shoes with that top?

For some reason this didn't annoy Alison though. Her outfit didn't annoy her the same way it would if it had been Cosima that had gotten dressed for school while high, and the way she seemed to ooze confidence didn't bug her in the same way it would if it had been Sarah and Felix being obnoxiously self-assured about something.

That was… odd.

"Oh, she's cute," Cosima nodded appreciatively, cutting through Alison's thoughts as she eyed the girl subtly and lifted a burger to her mouth.

"Yeah, and according to Paul she's some big track star too," Sarah added.

"Oh, double cute," Cosima nodded appreciatively, taking her eyes away from the new girl to be met with Alison's cold stare. "What?!"

"You have a girlfriend!" Alison hissed, appalled by Cosima's behaviour.

"And?"

"You can't just ogle other women!" Alison scolded, ignoring the bark of laughter that erupted from Sarah's throat at the word 'ogle'.

"I'm not ogling! I'm…" Cosima paused, looking around her and smiling as her girlfriend left the lunch queue and made her way towards the table. "Delphine, see that girl talking to Art?" She pointed once the blonde was close enough to hear her.

"Oui," Delphine nodded, placing her tray next to Cosima and sitting down.

"What do you think of her?"

"Uh, she is cute," Delphine replied after a beat, having taken a moment to admire the girl before coming to her conclusion.

"Okay, and what if I told you she was a track star too?" Cosima added casually, although she was already smirking as the scowl on Alison's face grew tenfold.

"Hm, I do not see the appeal of the athletic type," Delphine explained after some consideration. "That is why I am going out with a… dorky stoner like you m'amour."

Sarah laughed loudly again, though it quickly turned into a cough as the chip she'd been eating lodged somewhere in her windpipe. This caused a further ripple of laughter to run through the table, as Alison momentarily forgot the new girl, an Cosima forgot to be offended by her girlfriends remark.

"Oi, oi, what's going on here then," Felix suddenly interjected from behind Alison, having come over to the table just as the laughter began to die down. "Not having fun without me are we?"

"Delphine called Cosima fat," Sarah sniggered, wiping tears from her eyes and massaging her throat after her near death experience.

"I did not!" Delphine shot back with a bemused grin. "I merely suggested that if I was attracted to muscle I would not be dating Cosima I'd be uh… baise…" she paused, not quite sure of the translation.

"Fucking…" Cosima sighed.

Sarah laughed again at this, with Felix joining in as Cosima merely rolled her eyes at the two. She wished now she hadn't been such a massive nerd and read up on French slang terms when she'd first gotten a crush on the hot foreign exchange student in her AP biology class. She had though (mainly because hot French girls hardly cried out in English during sex, and it had been bugging her that her fantasies were so unrealistic), and here she was five months later helping the very same girl describe what she'd do if they weren't dating.

"Oui," Delphine nodded, smiling brightly at her girlfriend. "I'd be fucking some brainless jock."

"How reassuring." Cosima tried to seem hurt.

"Ah, mais m'amour je suis baise tu," Delphine whispered huskily, leaning in and letting her lips brushing the shell of Cosima's ear.

And just like that Cosima remembered why, actually, she was really fucking glad she'd spent all that time learning French.

"You're still coming over later, right?" She questioned, clearing her throat when she realised just how thick her voice had gotten.

"Oui, seven o clock," Delphine nodded, moving her lips away from Cosima's ear and focusing her attention back on her lunch, even as one hand ever so casually rested on Cosima's upper thigh – fuck this girl would be the death of her.

"Anyway…" Felix interrupted loudly, bringing both girls back to the real world. "Before you two start doing it on the table how about a change of topic… have you lot seen the new girl?"

"We were just talking about her actually. Do you know much about her?" Alison questioned casually.

She wasn't sure why (though it was probably something to do with how uncomfortable Cosima and Delphine's intense flirting had made her), but she was quite eager to get back on the topic of the mysterious brunette.

"Well I know she's cute," Felix only half joked, garnering a round of nods and sounds of agreement from the table.

"Felix… you're gay," Alison reminded him, feeling oddly uncomfortable as yet another person pointed out just how attractive she was.

"I can appreciate the female form though Ali," he pointed out. "I mean I think all of you are cute… well, except you Delphine, you're just plain hot," he teased, smirking when the French girl blushed.

"Yea, plus I mean she is good looking," Sarah agreed between a mouthful of food.

"Sarah you're straight!" (Why the hell did people keep pointing out that this girl was so attractive?! I mean was she?) "And don't talk with your mouth full."

"I'm aware of my sexuality Alison." Sarah rolled her eyes, pausing to take a deliberately large bite out of her burger before continuing. "I jus' fink –" She swallowed, realising that teasing Alison probably wasn't worth another coughing fit. "I just think she's attractive, it doesn't mean I want to jump her bones," she shrugged.

"Dude you have to admit she's cute," Cosima pointed.

Alison took another quick glance around at the brunette. This time she was listening to something Angie was saying. Her eyes seemed to absorb every detail of the other girls story, as her hands rested peacefully under her chin, supporting her head.

There was definitely something about her. Something open and honest yet concealed at the same time. Like she was the kind of person that could talk for days and reveal nothing about herself, yet you'd find yourself emptying your soul into her lap.

"Nope," Alison replied curtly, her eyes finally landing back on Cosima. "I honestly don't know what all of you see in her."

"Christ Ali, you're straighter than a ruler," Felix teased. "Actually, anyone know this mystery hotties name?" He spoke up as an afterthought, effectively cutting short the words of protest that were standing on the tip of Alison's tongue.

"Paul said her name was Elizabeth," Sarah supplied. "Elizabeth Childs."


	2. Chapter 2

Alison's first class after lunch was Ancient History, and Jesus Murphy did she hate Ancient History. At the time it had seemed like a fun idea; learning about ancient civilisations and the gods they worshiped. Now that she was here however she realised just how critical an error she'd made when she'd considered ancient deities to be interesting (you learn about one set of gods then you've learned about them all).

Still though, that wasn't any excuse for tardiness, and she was still the first person in the door – something she mentally patted herself on the back for as she stepped up to the front of the class to take her seat (because yes, even in a class she resented with every fibre of her being she felt some kind of magnetic connection to the front row of desks).

She took out her books slowly, and listened to the noise behind her as other students filled in in ones and twos from the lunch hall. Finally she heard a lull fall over the room signalling the arrival of their teacher and she mentally prepared herself as Mr. Kiely strode to the front of the room and cleared his throat, signalling the start of the longest hour of her week.

She really hated this class.

They'd been learning about Greek gods for the past few weeks, and once they'd covered the basics of the Olympian and Chthonic Gods, they'd moved on to some myths that her teacher found interesting (Alison considered the man to be very easily impressed).

Today's topic, according to the board and the handout she'd just been given, was Aphrodite and Ares.

Oh joy.

"So, what do we know about Aphrodite?" Mr. Kiely began, not budging from behind his desk, unlike most teachers Alison knew, who preferred to walk as they lectured. "Can anyone give me a few facts to start us off?"

An awkward silence ensued. Either no one knew or no one cared, Alison guessed it was probably both. Apparently she was wrong though.

"Ah yes, at the back… I'm sorry I don't know your name," Mr Kiely apologised, pointing somewhere behind Alison's head.

"Uh, Elizabeth Childs, I'm new."

Alison tried to remain neutral. Tried being the operative word as her eyes went wide in spite of her best attempt. The cute new girl was in her ancient history class?

Wait no. NO! Not cute, she wasn't cute. Damn her friends!

Whatever though. She didn't care. Why would she care? Why did she care? She didn't care. Did she care? She definitely didn't care. She found herself turning slowly in her seat anyway.

She pivoted just enough to spot Elizabeth out of the corner of her eye, without actually turning far enough for it to be obvious (because as her mother reminded her time and time again, it was rude to stare). Again the girl didn't look at all nervous or phased about being the 'new girl' in the room. In fact she seemed to take it in her stride which annoyed Alison because come on, you're new, you're supposed to be nervous aren't you?

"Right, well Miss Childs, care to fill me in on what you know of Aphrodite?" Mr Kiely prompted.

"She was the goddess of love, beauty and marriage," the new girl started, her voice seeming confident and well versed, like she really knew her stuff. "She was the only deity to pre-date Zeus and that's why Zeus is subordinate to love, even though he's the king of the gods. Uh, though Zeus didn't like that, or the affect Aphrodite had on people in general, so he forced her to marry his son Hephaestus because he was lame and ugly and uh yea…" she trailed off either having said all she knew or feeling as if she'd said enough.

"Very good Miss Childs, I'm impressed."

Alison was impressed too. Elizabeth didn't seem like the kind of girl that would be as smart as she apparently was. Alison supposed it was something about the entire jock persona in general that gave her that impression – she also supposed she should vow never to judge someone again, though she knew it wasn't something she'd do a great job at sticking to, and Alison hated failing.

After that Alison couldn't help but allow herself to think about the new girl. She didn't know why she was doing it, I mean new people started every few weeks, it was no big deal. Still every now and then her mind would zone out and she'd find herself instead going over what little she knew about the girl.

Elizabeth didn't suit her as a name. She wasn't an Elizabeth, or a Liz or a Lizzie or a Lisa or a Liza for that matter.

Her personality also seemed to clash. Athletic, smart, confident and aesthetically pleasing (even in her head she wasn't willing to use the word cute, because a) the first time was just a slip up and b) even if it was just her private thoughts, she was at least 80% certain Felix would know right away). Really though, who the hell managed to get the full package and carry it off?

She found that the hour didn't seem as long as usual once she started to think about Elizabeth (though god she was starting to hate that name on her). Before she knew it her notes had turned into a bulleted list of variations of the name Elizabeth and Mr Kiely was signalling that they'd wrapped up the subject for today.

By the time the bell sounded Alison was already packed, and out of her seat as if it were on fire. She had a study class next, and interesting new girl or no interesting new girl there was nothing on Gods good earth that would keep her in this hell of a class a second longer.

She walked past Izzy (nope, she wasn't an Izzy either) on her way out and smiled briefly as they momentarily caught one another's eye. She was walking fast though, and was already past Bette (hm, closer, but still not right) by the time the other girl had a chance to smile back.

-.-.-.-

Her study class was meant to be where Alison got her homework from her first two classes of the day out of the way to free up some space in her evening for, well, anything other than homework would be nice. What the study class was actually about though was Alison getting continually distracted by Felix and Sarah who she for some reason always chose to sit beside even though for god sakes she really should know better by now.

"So anyway, long story short Cal's got a few days off college next week so if either of you have ideas on something nice I could do throw 'em my way, yeah?" Sarah explained; her geography textbook lying in front of her, long since forgotten about.

"Can't believe you two are actually making this work," Felix commented, his tone somewhere between disbelief and impressed.

"Oi, what's that supposed to mean?" Sarah slapped him playfully on the arm.

"Just… you were always so wild before you met him, not that I'm complaining, I was getting sick of bailing you out of the slammer."

"Yeah well what can I say, I'm a changed woman, ain't I… on the straight and narrow now," Sarah replied, rolling her eyes at Felix's statement.

"Jesus that'll be the day," Felix snorted.

"Fuck you," Sarah drawled, deciding to change the subject before this became a 'remember the time you…' kind of conversation. "Ali, any suggestions for something romantic?"

(Bizzy? No. God no, seriously Alison what the heck? Elizabeth was better than Bizzy). "Sorry what?" Alison's head snapped up and all thoughts of re-naming the new girl (how the hell had that even become a thought again?) fell from her mind.

"Suggestions for some romantic shite I could do for Cal?" Sarah repeated.

"Well for one maybe don't call it romantic shite," Alison suggested dryly. "Also why are you asking the only single person in our group of friends?" She added as an afterthought.

"Hey, wow there, I'd like to make it clear I am tied to no man," Felix interjected urgently.

"I'm asking you because you're the perfect middle ground between like romantic and realistic ain't yah," Sarah explained, ignoring Felix. "So it'll be all romantic, but nothing too ridiculous or expensive."

"Why do you even care so much?" Felix huffed (I mean god, it was bad enough when he had to hear about their sex life).

"He asked me to prom… Told me that even though it was my prom I deserved to be asked properly an' all that," Sarah explained, smiling goofily at the memory until she caught the disbelieving look Felix was sending her way. "So y'know like payback or whatever," she shrugged roughly (good save Manning, good save).

"Well I'll see if anything comes to mind before he gets back," Alison told her, having no real intention of giving too much thought to the issue (seeing as last time she checked Cal was Sarah's boyfriend and not hers).

Sarah was about to thank her (or the nearest thing Sarah every got to thanking someone), when something else behind Alison caught her attention. It seemed to perk Felix's interest as well and Alison was about to turn in her seat when she felt a light tap on her shoulder.

"Sorry…" The voice was familiar, very familiar. "Are you Alison Hendrix?"

Alison turned slowly in her seat, knowing before she even made eye contact with the person behind her that it was Beth. (Wow hold on a second. Beth. Beth. BETH. That's the name that suited her. New girl was a Beth! Holy fishsticks how had she thought of Bess, Betsy and Bizzy yet not Beth?).

"Uh yes, that's me," Alison confirmed with a tight smile, coming face to face with this new girl for the first time.

"Cool and you're in AP English, right?" Beth (yep, that was definitely the one) asked in such a way that it didn't actually sound much like a question.

"Uh yes… I am?"

"Right well me too," Beth smiled, pausing for a moment. "I'm Elizabeth Childs by the way." (No you're not, you're Beth Childs).

"Oh, nice to meet you." Alison widened her smile and nodded her head tightly, though the confusion on her face must have been clear.

"Right, I should probably tell you why I'm here before you start to think the new girls crazy," Beth laughed, and again, although it probably should have (and maybe it even intended to) her statement didn't come off as being in the least bit awkward or apologetic. "I went to talk to Miss Dillane about the material we'd covered so far this year and about catching up on it, and she said you might be willing to help me?" For the first time what Beth said sounded vaguely like a question.

"Oh?"

"Yea, she said you were top of the class, and her best student so I'd be in capable hands," Beth informed her, with a smile that could almost be misread as some sort of second hand pride for Alison. "But I mean it's totally cool if you're not able to do it, I'm pretty decent at English anyway and –"

"No," Alison cut her off, realising just how negative her 'oh' must have sounded. "No, no it's okay I'd be more than willing to help you."

"Really?" Beth was smiling now; it was a very loose and optimistic smile that Alison found she quite liked.

"Yes of course. Not today though, I've something after school and quite a bit of homework, would tomorrow suit?" She offered.

"Yea, tomorrow's perfect, and I've got the reading lists and stuff so I should be able to get all the books I need by then as well," Beth nodded, still smiling confidently.

"Right," Alison nodded, turning to pick up her pen and scribble her address on a piece of paper. "I would suggest the library but there's no central heating in there, so this is my home address instead."

"Cool, what time will I come over at?"

"Would six suit?"

"Sounds good to me," Beth nodded, snatching the piece of paper out of Alison's outstretched hand.

"Right well, see you then," Alison concluded as she watched Beth begin go walk away from her backwards.

"You're damn right," Beth agreed with one final grin, before turning on her heel and striding across the room and back to her seat beside Paul.

"Oh, new girl swears," Felix teased, and Alison jumped having forgotten who she was sitting beside.

"What do you mean?" Alison sighed, turning to face her friends.

"He means you once turned down a part in a play cos of swearin' so how yah gonna cope?" Sarah chimed in.

"I deal with you two, I'm sure I'll manage," Alison retorted coolly before turning back to the work in front of her (to be honest, for some odd reason swearing seemed to suit Beth).


	3. Chapter 3

So I'm Irish, and therefore only have the most basic of basic knowledge of what Canadians would learn about in their English classes (aka: I know as much as Wikipedia told me). Therefore I took some liberties with what kind of course work they'd do and basically chose plays that I studied in English when I was at school (thus the obscure play by an Irish playwright that's mentioned).

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Alison was oddly excited by the time 5:45 rolled around the next evening. It wasn't the kind of giddy excited she got when she knew she was going to be hanging out with her friends for the weekend though. Nor was it the kind of nervous excitement she got before stepping out onto the stage for the opening night. It was more like an anticipatory kind of excited that you'd feel if you knew you were about to get a surprise that you'd like (not that Alison was much a fan of surprises).

She knew it was dumb to feel this excited, but then again Beth had been on her mind quite a bit since yesterday. Not in the way her friends would think though; not in a _gay_ way. She was just curious was all. There was something about this girl that made her curious, and that made her want to find out more, kind of like they were meant to know one another (okay, what the Dickens? If she stayed on this train of thought much longer she'd begin to think it was fate or something and then she'd know for sure that silly mythology class had been affecting her).

It was only 5:49 when she heard her doorbell ring. "Early," she muttered to herself, not that she minded; at least she wasn't a fashionable half hour late like Cosima tended to be.

Beth was in running gear when she answered the door, her hair pulled back in a tight ponytail as it had been the day before. She didn't look particularly out of breath or sweaty though and she had a backpack fastened over both shoulders packed with books, so surely she didn't run all the way here from – well, from wherever it was she lived.

"Hi," Alison greeted, with a polite smile and a curt nod.

"Hey there," Beth returned, her own grin a lot more genuine.

"Welcome," Alison added, not forgetting her manners as she stepped aside quickly, motioning for Beth to come in.

Beth did so quickly, swinging the bag off her shoulder as she moved. She looked around the hall as Alison closed the door behind her, seeming to take in everything from the pictures along the wall to the eloquent (though obviously fake) plant in the corner beside the door.

"Nice house," she complimented eventually, breaking the brief (yet oddly comfortable) silence that had fallen between them.

"Thank you," Alison replied (not that she'd had anything to do with the décor – although she did quite like her mother's taste). "This way by the way," she prompted after a beat, taking the lead through the hall. "My books are all in the dining room, I was doing my homework in there."

"Yea, sorry I'm early," Beth apologised casually, obviously presuming she'd interrupted Alison's work. "It's just I had track after school so I ran here, and I kind of underestimated how close the school was to Hillsdale," she explained as they stepped through the kitchen and Alison pushed open the double doors to the dining room.

"Holy Glinda, you ran here?" Alison spun to face Beth, her eyes having gone wide.

"Yea," Beth chuckled, obviously amused by Alison's choice phrase. "It only took like twenty minutes."

"But you've a bag full of books…" Alison challenged (there was no way she ran, just no way).

"It strengthens your upper body," Beth explained with a shrug.

"Weren't you cold?" Alison persisted (seriously, there was no way she ran here).

"Running warms you up." Beth shrugged again, this time adding a smile.

Alison couldn't think of an argument after that, and instead her mouth formed an 'o'. She didn't know how long she stood like this, though it must have been longer than acceptable as Beth eventually cleared her throat. "Right, sorry, let's get to work!" Alison shook her head clearing her mind of just how strong Beth must be (her calves must be – no! Stop it, no!).

She walked towards the table and sat at the head where her books were already spread out around her. Beth sat to her right, and placed her bag on her knee as she unzipped it and took out a pile of books, a notebook and a pencil case. Alison sighed; she'd forgotten just how much they'd managed to cover between September and January.

"So, anywhere you advise I make a start," Beth questioned, looking at Alison probably hoping for her to say they'd not done all of this yet.

"The dramas," Alison replied. "We started with them in September, so I suppose that's the best place to start… have you done either of them before?"

"I've done Macbeth," Beth nodded, holding up the book just in case Alison had forgotten what the cover looked like. "I've never heard of Sive before though?" She added, staring down at the other text with her eyebrows knitted together in a way that almost made Alison smile.

Rather than smile though, she chose to correct her. "It's not pronounced like 'sieve'," she explained gently, reaching over and lifting the text off the table. "It's pronounced Sive, with a strong 'i', and it's an Irish play."

"Oh," Beth nodded, seeming genuinely interested in Alison's explanation.

"Yea, I didn't like it," Alison added after a moment's thought. "The ending was… a disappointment."

"Oh?" Beth said again, this time posing the sound as a question.

"Mmm, Sive dies in the end and doesn't get to be with the guy she loves," Alison mused. "I prefer happy endings."

"I guess not everyone gets a happy ending," Beth suggested absently.

"I don't like being reminded of that either," Alison retorted, feeling a half-hearted pang of annoyance that quickly faded when Beth merely shrugged again.

-.-.-.-

They worked in silence for a while after that. Beth had decided she'd tackle Sive first seeing as she knew nothing about it. Alison had given her notes and offered to talk her through them, though Beth had insisted she was fine and Alison had taken this as a cue to get back to her algebra homework.

Their only interruption came about an hour and a half later, when Beth's stomach growled violently, the way Beth clutched it seeming in no way to silence the beast.

"Fuck, sorry," she laughed once her stomach had finished showing just how accurately it could mimic earthquake sounds.

Alison flinched slightly at the word 'fuck' but quickly brushed it off. "I suppose we have been working for a while now… I'll make us some sandwiches."

"Oh no seriously it's cool," Beth insisted, shaking her head. "I can just get food when I go home, I don't want to be a hassle or anything."

"Be-Elizabeth." (Holy moly Alison, don't let her know you've a nickname for her!). "I'm not just going to let you starve while you're in my house, so do you want ham, chicken or just salad on your sandwich?"

"Ham…" She replied after only a seconds hesitation. "And Alison, please don't call me Elizabeth," she added a moment later as Alison rose from the table.

"Well what does everyone else call you?" Alison prompted (please say Beth, please say Beth).

"Well uh… actually everyone calls me Elizabeth," she replied, seeming confused by her own statement.

"Then why am I the only one not allowed to call you that?" (not that she was complaining at all, as long as she got to suggest the name to call her instead).

"I don't know… I don't know why I said it actually." Beth was beginning to seem more and more confused by herself by the second.

"Oh…" Alison was pretty confused too.

"I guess when you say it my name doesn't seem to suit me anymore," she explained, her shoulders tensing into a half shrug when she spoke. "I mean I've never liked it much anyway, but just you make it seem like it shouldn't be my name at all?" For the first time Alison was hearing Beth sound anything other than confident, and she couldn't help but smile.

"Okay…" she replied slowly, chewing over the next sentence for a second in her mind before she said it. "One ham sandwich coming up Beth." (Please like the name, please like the name, please like the name).

Beth smiled a really broad smile for a moment, and even though all she said in response was "thanks", Alison knew she liked her new name just as much as she did.

-.-.-.-

Twenty minutes later both girls were sitting at the island in Alison's kitchen. They'd both been silent since Alison had presented Beth with her ham, tomato and lettuce sandwich – having opted for chicken and corn on her own. Alison was a far quicker eater than Beth though, and since she'd finished she found herself watching the way Beth took small nibbles out of her food rather than large bites (then again she had to remind herself not everyone ate the way Sarah did).

"So…" Beth eventually broke the silence between bites, having quenched her immediate hunger. "Shouldn't your parents be home or something?" It was almost eight o'clock after all.

"Uh no, my dad's away for the week on business, and mom's visiting my grandma so she won't be back until late," Alison explained, watching as Beth nodded between mouthfuls. "What about you, won't your parents be expecting you home sometime?"

"Not really," Beth shrugged. "I told mom I was going to study so she knows not to worry too much," she shrugged. "Then dad lives in New York, so I doubt he'll notice."

"Oh, your parents aren't together?" Alison cringed before she'd even finished her sentence.

"Naw, but they got divorced when I was like seven, so you know, I've had more than enough time to adjust," Beth explained, seeming in no way phased.

"Still I'm uh… sorry?" (That was a dumb thing to say. Was that a dumb thing to say?).

"Apology accepted," Beth smirked, the sarcasm in her tone excessively obvious.

"Whatever, you know what I mean," Alison shot back, her own smile tugging at her lips.

"Yea, but it doesn't make it any less weird when people say it," Beth pointed out, a glimmer still in her eyes as she teased Alison.

"I suppose you have a point," Alison relented.

They fell to silence again when Beth took another bite of her sandwich and Alison watched. She wanted to keep talking to her though; she wanted to find out more about her. She watched as Beth chewed and swallowed, and then spoke up before she had a chance to take another bite.

"So, why'd you move her anyway?"

A sadness instantly passed across Beth's face and Alison knew she made a mistake, even though within seconds it was gone again. "If I told you that I'd have to kill you," Beth teased, not in the same way she had before though; this time there was no life behind her words.

Alison instantly decided to drop the topic. Instead she searched her brain desperately for something else to say, anything else to say. Thankfully, Beth beat her to it.

"You know it was nice of you to do this." She sounded genuine in a way that made Alison forget to be uncomfortable.

"Well you know, when a teacher suggests you, you kind of have to say yes." Alison brushed off the compliment easily.

"Suppose," Beth nodded. "You know she suggested some Chad guy first," she added after a moment.

"Really?" Alison sounded more shocked than she intended to (then again, not to sound cocky, but she knew she was better than Chad at English).

"Yea, though she kept mentioning how he was a nice boy and easy to get along with and stuff and… I know this might sound crazy, but I think she could have been trying to set me up or something?" Beth shot Alison a quizzical look, her frown only deepening when Alison began to laugh.

"Yes, unfortunately that seems about right," Alison confirmed. "At the start of the year she gave us all a seating plan based on who she thought would look good together. I think it's because she's in her forties and still single, she's living vicariously through us."

"That's just fucking weird," Beth deadpanned, causing Alison to laugh (also causing Alison to laugh at a swear word probably for the first time in her life). "Well yea anyway, once I made it clear I wasn't interested in studying with Chad, or doing anything else with Chad for that matter, she suggested you and I dunno, Alison Hendrix just seemed like the kind of person I wanted to study with."

"Oh?" Alison's laughter softened into a smile; something about the way Beth had said the last sentence warming her heart.

"Yea," Beth nodded, pondering what exactly it was she meant for a moment before she continued. "I guess I was just drawn to you… or your name anyway."

"Oh," Alison nodded, replaying the sentiment a few times in her head before she spoke again. "That's an oddly nice thing to hear."

She smiled, and Beth smiled back and then they sat in silence for a while longer as Beth took the last few bites from her sandwich and again, Alison watched her chew and swallow with precision – something she was glad Beth didn't seem to mind.

"I should probably go," Beth realised once she was done her food, her eye having caught the clock on the wall behind Alison's head. "It's getting kinda late, and mom probably will start to worry if I'm not home soon."

"Oh, just using me for my food then." Alison shocked herself with her teasing tone (since when did she tease people?!)

"Well, that and your notes," Beth shot back, not missing a beat.

"Oh of course."

Beth stood then, and walked back to the dining room to gather her stuff. When she re-emerged Alison had already tidied away their dishes, and was just finished wiping down the counter (she wasn't OCD, she was just… particular).

"You know if you wanted to wait half an hour my mom will probably be back and she can leave you home?" Alison suggested as she walked with Beth back to the front door.

"Nah, the run will do me good," Beth brushed off the suggestion easily.

"You know it's even colder out there this time of the night," Alison warned, trying not to sound too motherly.

"Yea well, if you don't see me tomorrow at school you'll know it's the frost-bite that got me," Beth mocked, opening the front door and stepping out onto the porch.

"If you insist," Alison huffed, not liking the idea of her out in this weather, especially as an icy gust blew past her. "See you tomorrow Beth," she added then, her tone softening.

"Beth," she smiled, letting the name roll over on her tongue. "It is far better than Elizabeth isn't it?"

"Much better," Alison nodded (like you've no idea).

Beth smiled warmly, a look momentarily flashing in her eye that Alison couldn't quite distinguish. "Anyway, see you tomorrow Alison."

"Yea, see you tomorrow."


	4. Chapter 4

It was still dark out when Beth rolled herself unceremoniously out of her warm sheets and onto her cold hardwood floor.

"Fuuuuck," she groaned, hopping across her room to her wardrobe, afraid her feet would freeze to the floor in the same way tongues did when kids in movies licked frozen poles (maybe that was just a movie thing though… Did that actually happen in real life?).

She changed from her pyjamas to her running gear (plus a few extra layers, because fuck it was cold) in record time and done some quick stretches before grabbing her phone and earphones and heading downstairs to fill a bottle of water and stick a note to the fridge telling her mother where she was going in case she woke up before Beth got back. Then she headed to the front door, bracing herself for the icy wind that would hit her the second she opened it.

Usually she ran in the evenings after school (mainly because it was at least a little warmer). Though with a competition coming up the following week she wanted to try and get two runs in a day. Plus it was a Saturday, so it wasn't like she was doing too much else anyway.

She hit play on her phone's iTunes and skipped a few times before finding a track that was good for running to. As Eye of the Tiger (yes, her embarrassing music library was the reason she never let anyone near her phone) began to play she pushed off from her doorstep, not really noticing where her feet were taking her as the crisp air beat against her face and the solid sidewalk stretched out endlessly in front of her.

People had always asked her why she'd chosen track over soccer when she'd been given the choice. Her father had even gone as far as to express his disappointment that she hadn't gone for a team sport instead. There was no choice for her though. There was something about running that was just so freeing to her; so liberating. When she knotted the laces on her running shoes suddenly her possibilities seemed endless, like she could go anywhere, and by default be anyone.

She didn't really know where she was going actually, though after about forty-five minutes the streets she was running on began to look familiar. She knew she'd taken a lot more left turns than right ones, so she figured at some point she'd circled back on herself, and had as a consequence apparently ended up in a vaguely familiar part of town.

She considered turning back – by the time she'd find her way home again it'd probably be roughly two hours of jogging – though she didn't. Instead she kept going straight ahead down the suburban street, now feeling like her feet were leading her somewhere in particular.

-.-.-.-

Alison was awake before her alarm. She smiled to herself; it was like a game to her at this point, setting the alarm for eight and then seeing if her body clock would wake her at half seven anyway. It was like her first little win of the day and it always left her hopping out of bed with an extra spring in her step.

Her father was still on his business trip, and her mother had said something about picking up her grandma for an early hospital appointment in the city, so she knew she had the house to herself for a few hours. She dressed quickly and headed downstairs, scanning the kitchen quickly to find the note she knew her mother would have left her. It was sitting on the kitchen table.

_Dear Alison,_

_I'm taking your grandmother to the hospital then running some errands. Your grandmother also mentioned something about wanting to do some shopping while she was in the city so I may not be home until late. Use some of the money in the drawer to order pizza if you don't want to cook._

_Love mom._

_PS: Your father forgot to empty the kitchen bin before he left, so just dump it into the bin at the street when you get a chance._

Alison groaned. Of all the chores in the world she could be asked to do of course it'd have to be emptying the bin. She'd rather scrub 100 toilets than have to suffer through two minutes of gagging on the smell left by decaying rubbish.

Still though, her mother very rarely left her instructions and Alison was positive that even if she wanted to defy these ones she wouldn't be physically or mentally capable of it (and just like that Sarah was in her head chanting 'goody two shoes' and sniggering). And so, with a long sigh she retrieved a pair of shoes from beside the front door and knotted up the laces before begrudgingly lifting the bag out and double knotting it.

She then went to the door, the bag being held as far away from her body as her outstretched arm would allow. Once she was outside she felt it was safe to breathe through her nose again thanks to the wind blowing the bags smell away from her. She still moved quickly though, and managed to lift the lid off the bin at the end of the lane and throw the bin-bag in in one swift motion.

Once the bag was safely disposed of, Alison chanced a glance up at the street around her. Most houses were still quiet at this hour of the morning as there was no need for kids to be rushing out to school and most parents had the day off. Out of the corner of her eye though she caught sight of someone jogging on the opposite side of the street. She turned to wave, presuming it was the manager of the local bank, training for another mini-marathon. The actual identity of the runner shocked her however.

"Beth?" Alison's words seemed to fall on deaf ears, as Beth made no attempt to look over at her.

Alison could see the wires from her earphone's though, and not one to be put off easily, she stepped out into the road (being sure to look both ways beforehand of course), and called her name again, this time adding a wave. This tactic seemed to work, as her classmate slowed to a stop and took out her earphones.

"Hey Alison what's up," She called, stepping out into the road to meet the other girl.

"Oh not a lot just…" she paused (why had she stopped her actually?). "Just wanted to say hi," she concluded, wincing internally at her lame reasoning.

"Oh," Beth nodded not seeming to find it to be too dumb an answer. "Bit early for you to be up saying hi to people though don't you think," she added after a moment in an attempt to fill the silence that had fallen between them.

"I get up early anyway," Alison explained. "It's not like I was waiting at my kitchen window for you to run past."

"I didn't say you were," Beth laughed. "Though now I kind of think you were and you're just saying that to cover your tracks."

"I was not!" Alison huffed, shoving the slightly taller girl in the arm.

Before Beth had a chance to make another smart remark a car pulled out of a lane up ahead of them. Both girls stepped in off the road to let it past, now standing back beside Alison's bin. They both watched in silence as the car drove down the long road then turned right and out of sight.

"Do you want some water," Alison asked once the vehicle had disappeared.

"Thanks, but I got some," Beth smiled, holding up her half full water bottle and waving it in Alison's face as proof.

"Food then? You must be hungry?" Alison tried again, not caring if Beth would think she was weird for being so eager to hang out with her.

"Well I can't say no to that." Beth's grin grew tenfold as Alison smiled politely at her and led her back into the house.

Once they'd eaten and tidied everything away (well, Alison tidied; insisting Beth would only do it wrong and she'd have to re-do it later once she was gone) they decided it was in their best interest to spend the rest of their day watching movies from Alison's fathers DVD collection that sat on a shelf behind the television.

It had taken them a while to agree on the film ("I am not watching a musical!" "Beth, West Side Story is a classic, and plus there's no way I'm watching a boring action film" "How are action films boring?!" "They're all the same!" "You're all the same." "Oh, good one." "Shut up, it's early." "Whatever, how about comedy?" "Yeah okay sounds like a plan.") though once they did Alison got pretzels from the cupboard in the kitchen (because according to Beth it was never too early for junk food) and they both sat on the couch while Beth hit play.

Three films later (all of which were comedy because apparently they could agree on nothing else – and even then they laughed at different jokes) the pretzels were gone and Beth had fallen asleep against Alison's shoulder, probably exhausted from her early run.

Initially Alison had planned on moving her once her shoulder got sore. Then it had gotten sore and she'd decided to wait until the film ended instead. Then the film had ended and she decided to leave it until after the credits rolled (always nice to appreciate all the work that goes into making a movie happen after all). Now however her arm was in agony, the DVD was doing its sixth loop of the title page and Alison still hadn't pulled her shoulder out from under Beth's head, nor had she attempted to reposition her against the back of the couch.

She couldn't lie here forever though, that would be ridiculous. She had to do something.

Why wasn't she then?

Then again the weight of Beth's head against her shoulder was rather comforting and the feeling of Beth's breath through the fabric of her t-shirt was pretty nice. In fact… Beth herself was pretty nice in a way that was beginning to give Alison butterflies.

Alison's arm jerked out from under Beth's head in reflex to what she'd just realized. Instantly Beth's eyes flew open and she sat poker straight, head darting from side to side as she re-acquainted herself with her surroundings.

"Shit, what… where… oh," Beth finally muttered, her eyes landing on Alison. "I fell asleep, didn't I?"

"You did indeed," Alison nodded, the slightest hint of a smile tugging at the corners of her lips as she watched Beth blink the sleep out of her eyes (why was that suddenly so smile worthy?).

"Damn, sorry," Beth groaned. "What time is it?"

"Half one," Alison informed her, checking the watch on her wrist.

"Yea I better head home," Beth nodded once she heard the time, standing out of her seat and stretching her weary bones. "I told mom I was going out for a jog hours ago, she'll think I've been kidnapped or something."

"Can't you text her?" Alison blurted (what was she doing?!).

"Uh…" Beth considered it for a moment (a moment too long in Alison's mind).

"It's just my mom left me money to get a pizza, but I never manage to eat a whole one by myself and you know… It's fun hanging out with you." (Wow, like wow. Had she really just said that?)

"Pizza sounds really good actually," Beth nodded, grinning widely as Alison blushed. "Just let me call my mom."

Alison decided she'd order the pizza while Beth was on the phone to her mother, and after much debate ("Meat mountain!" "Ugh no, what about chicken and sweetcorn?" "Ew, Alison, who the hell puts sweetcorn on a pizza?" "I do." "Well you're weird." "I'm also paying for your dinner." "Fine… how about we go for just cheese then?" "Seems like a fair compromise.") she was ringing up the order. She was told thirty minutes, and once she hung up she checked her mobile to estimate when it'd be arriving (just after two).

She turned then, and jumped when she realised Beth was standing right behind her.

"Uh, my mom wants to talk to you," Beth murmured, holding out her phone. "Just to like, double check I am where I say I am," she added hastily when Alison shot her a confused look.

"Hello Ms Childs," Alison put the phone to her ear awkwardly. "Yes, I'm Alison Hendrix. Yes, the one that helped Be-Elizabeth with English." (she ignored the giddy feeling in her chest at the realisation she was the only one that called her by that nickname). "Yes just watching some movies, and now we're ordering pizza. No, no, oh no it's not a party, just the two of us. Okay, okay… okay. Bye."

Beth grimaced as she accepted the phone back off Alison. "Sorry," she muttered, shoving it back into her pocket.

"It's cute that she cares," Alison insisted.

"Cute unless you're on the receiving end of all that smothering," Beth retorted. "Anyway," she changed the subject before Alison could add anything. "Pizza ordered?"

"It'll be here in." She checked her watch. "Twenty-seven minutes."

"Cool," Beth nodded enthusiastically. "Oh and Alison." A look that if Alison hadn't known any better she'd have called nerves seemed to flash across Beth's face for just a second before she continued with her sentence. "I really like hanging out with you too. It's uh… It's by far the most fun I've had with anyone in ages."

There was a long pause after Beth spoke where both girls looked one another in the eye – Beth's cheeks growing redder as the clogs in Alison's mind churned until finally she spoke. "I'm going to hug you now."

Beth froze solid when a pair of arms wrapped around her neck and Alison's head rested against her shoulder. Then after a moment –

"If you don't hug me back I'm going to feel like an idiot," Alison muttered against the fabric of her hoodie.

So she did. She wrapped her arms around Alison's waist and buried her face into Alison's hair and just stood there for a few moments, until gradually Alison broke away from the hug, blushing a little, but otherwise smiling contently.

"We'll give you a heart yet tin man," Alison teased, moving around Beth and towards the kitchen.

"You know… I've never seen Wizard of Oz," Beth commented a she followed Alison diligently.

"You're lucky I don't kick you out for such blasphemy." Alison sounded as if she were only half kidding.

They were half ways through their pizza when Alison's phone buzzed indicating a text. She checked it quickly, but threw it back down on the table when she saw it was only from Sarah. She probably just wanted to know if Alison would let her borrow her notes for some class she'd "forgotten" to go to – she could wait. It wasn't until the third time her phone buzzed (and she threw it back on the table) that Beth commented on it.

"You know you should probably get that…" she pointed at the device with one hand while the final slice of pizza dangled in her other.

"It's just my friend Sarah," Alison explained with a shrug. "I'm sure it's nothing major."

"Still…" Something about the tone in Beth's voice made Alison pick up the phone.

"Yea see, nothing major," Alison repeated once she'd read the texts. "She's just reminding me that her boyfriend's coming home from college tomorrow for a few days and I promised her I'd give her an idea for something cheap an romantic she could do to surprise him… a promise I've no recollection of making by the way," she added, rolling her eyes as she threw the phone back on the table.

"That hill outside town," Beth began to speak instantly (and much to Alison's surprise). "If you go up there in the evening you can see the stars because there's no other light up there. They could go there with blankets and food and they could stargaze… I mean I know it's kind of cheesy and it'd probably be cold, but when you're up there there's no one else around it's like you've the whole world to yourself, and when you're staring up at the night I dunno… I guess it'd be kind of magical."

"Wow…" Alison felt dumb, but it really was all she could say.

"Yea, plus it'd be basically free other than the sandwiches," Beth added, seeming oblivious to Alison's awestruck expression.

"I'll uh… I'll text Sarah that now," Alison nodded, recovering a little (Beth did not come across at the romantic kind of person). "That seems really, really beautiful Beth," she added once the text had been sent, a small smile flickering across her face when Beth looked up at her and blushed.

"Thanks."

-.-.-.-

It was eight that evening when Beth finally decided she should go (and Alison finally agreed to let her). They'd long since re-located to Alison's room, since her mother had gotten back and had insisted they move so she could lean the living room (after she politely introduced herself to Beth of course).

"Are you sure you don't want a lift?" Alison questioned, closing the lid of her laptop where they'd been watching Netflix.

"It's fine," Beth insisted, rising off Alison's chest, where her head had been resting for the past two hours, and unwinding her arm from around Alison's waist. "I still need to get in my second run anyway."

"God, all that running in this weather," Alison grimaced, trying to ignore the empty feeling she felt now that Beth's warm body was gone from her side.

"Yea, but it'll totally be worth it when I win a medal next week," Beth grinned cockily.

"I wish I could see you run," Alison mused, imagining just how fast Beth must be.

"You could come," Beth blurted suddenly, turning to fully face Alison in the bed again.

"Really?"

"Well I mean, if you wanted," Beth corrected herself. "We got a bus and there's loads of empty seats, so as long as you got a note from your mom they said we could bring one supporter each," Beth explained enthusiastically.

"Okay!" Alison replied without a second thought for the classes she'd be missing.

"Cool," Beth stood from the bed and pushed her feet back into her running shoes without undoing the laces. "It'll be cool to have someone cheering." She walked towards the bedroom door, and Alison rose to follow her down the stairs.

"Okay well I can't wait," Alison gushed. "I'll see you there."

"Well, I'm sure you'll see me at some point before that… I mean the race isn't until Wednesday," Beth laughed, taking her hoodie off the hook in the hall and picking her water bottle up off the table next to it.

"You know what I mean," Alison rolled her eyes.

"Of course I do," Beth smirked, stretching her legs a few times while maintaining an intense eye contact with Alison that should have been awkward but wasn't. "Anyway, see you Monday Ali," she added with a smile, turning then and opening the door to step out into the cold.

"Yea, bye Beth," Alison called after her, watching as she crossed the road and set off down the path.

She closed the door behind her and turned back towards the stairs.

"She called me Ali," she whispered to herself as she began to climb back to her room. "She called me Ali."

By the time she was safely back in her bedroom with the door locked behind her she was pretty confident her chest was going to explode and her smile was going to crack the skin on her face.


	5. Chapter 5

Alison had been bursting with nervous excitement all week (Felix had of course put it down to her sexual frustration boiling over. Cal had tried to stop Sarah from agreeing with him, but god bless him the poor boy was so whipped he didn't stand a chance of calming Sarah down once her and Felix got started on a joke. Cosima and Delphine had tried to be nicer about it than that, but she caught them smirking out of the corner of her eye every time a comment was made).

Not that she cared. In fact by the time Wednesday rolled around she was pretty sure that if the world was ending there would still be nothing else she'd care about aside from Beth.

No.

Not Beth, watching Beth.

Fiddlesticks! Watching Beth _race_ that was.

Not just watching Beth because that would be weird.

She was watching Beth race, so she could support her and cheer for her and –

Yea she was definitely there mainly to watch Beth.

It's not that she was gay, because Alison knew for a fact she wasn't gay. In the back of her mind she thought bisexuality may be more of an accurate description. That said though she'd been there when Cosima had come out. In fact she'd been the first person Cosima had told when they were fifteen, and she'd been the one to hold her friend for an hour when she cried about just how scared she was that people would hate her (which of course was ridiculous because the one guy that did make a stupid comment ended up with a broken nose and a fractured wrist once Sarah had found out about it, and that had most certainly been the end of that). So even though she felt bisexuality may be a more accurate tag to put on things she'd never felt the kind of attraction towards a woman that Cosima described.

Even with Beth it wasn't that kind of attraction. Of course Beth was attractive, and yes, Alison had thought several times about kissing her over the past few days, though there was definitely something more than that – something that was different than the way she felt when she saw a hot boy. It felt like something deeper, and something Alison couldn't quite put her finger on.

So for the moment her feelings were left without a label, and for the moment she didn't really mind. She especially didn't mind when she saw Beth wandering up out of her peripheral vision towards her locker.

"Ready to watch me kick some ass?" She grinned.

"It's a race you're in, not an ultimate fighters tournament," Alison retorted, beginning to walk towards the school doors, trusting Beth to catch up with her.

"I dunno," Beth teased, catching up without any effort and draping her arm over Alison's shoulder. "Once you see how much I beat these guys by you might change your mind." Her fingers splayed out over Alison's upper arm and suddenly everything seemed very intimate.

"You're so full of yourself I almost hope you trip," Alison sighed, trying not to allow herself to smile.

-.-.-.-

Beth didn't trip though. In fact she didn't put a single step wrong for the entire day. 5000 meters was her speciality and she breezed through her heat without so much as breaking a sweat (well as far as Alison could tell from her place in the stand anyway). The semi-final was no trouble to her either, though Alison saw the people from the other races, and as Beth lined up for the final race of the day her chin was practically resting on the head of the man in front of her she was leaning so far forward.

The race was far too close for Alison's heart to handle and when Beth crossed the line in first place it was the nearest Alison Hendrix had ever come to swearing ("F-iyero YES!").

She didn't know what the proper protocol was after was after a race. She'd only ever seen running like this when she watched the Olympics with her dad, and this high-school event wasn't exactly on the same level. Still though, the proper protocol probably wasn't to run as fast as you could from the stand, clamber over a barrier and tackle hug one of the athletes, though that's exactly what she did.

-.-.-.-

Beth saw Alison running towards her and knew she should try and stop her. She didn't really want to stop her though, and once Alison had managed to get past the barrier she found herself running too – vaguely recognising that if someone were to record them and play it in slow-motion it would be movie gold.

This time she didn't hesitate when Alison wrapped her arms around her neck. She hugged her right back, even lifting her off the ground and spinning her in a quick circle before placing her down and burying her head into Alison's hair.

She liked how warm it was in the groove between Alison's neck and shoulder. She loved the way she could smell the light, fruity perfume Alison wore, and the complimentary fruity scent of her shampoo. She loved even more the way one of Alison's hands curled around her neck and the way there was no space between their bodies as they stood there. What she loved the most right there in that moment though, was the way Alison whispered words of congratulation in her ear, each syllable soaked in the pride that Alison seemed to emit from every pore of her body in that exact moment.

Beth had very quickly realised ever since their first meeting in the study class that there was a lot of things to love about Alison Hendrix. Though this particular moment she knew would stand out for her no matter how long she knew the other girl (which she found herself hoping more and more frequently would be a very long time).

Gradually (and all too soon) Alison began to pull back. "You won!" She squeaked, her hands still resting on Beth's shoulders.

"I did, didn't I," Beth nodded, her own hands lingering on Alison's waist as a kind of dumbfounded look materialised on her face and she realised for the first time she was state champion.

"Well yea, why else would I be hugging you?" Alison teased lightly.

"Good point." (I dunno, maybe because there's a one in a million chance you like me even half as much as I like you?).

-.-.-.-

Alison was practically shaking with excitement when Beth stepped up to the podium and bowed her head to accept the gold medal around her neck. She wanted to run up and hug her again, though there were a lot of important looking people shaking Beth's hand so she managed to contain herself.

Beth seemed to break away from the group as quickly as possible anyway, and made her way back to Alison after a few quick words with Angie and Art.

"Ta-da." Her smile was almost as bright as the medal she was dangling in front of Alison's face.

"I'm impressed." (She was actually more impressed by the way Beth's snaggletooth poked out above her bottom lip when she smiled, though she examined the medal around her neck anyway). "Oh, it's heavy!"

"I know right!" Beth was giddy with excitement. "I just called mom to tell her, she said she's gonna get a special case for it."

Alison didn't reply; instead she just smiled. It hit her that this was the most genuinely happy she'd seen Beth since they first met and that the girl standing in front of her, gushing about her achievement had never looked more beautiful.

It also hit her that she could have easily taken her mom as her plus one on the bus today (Paul had taken his dad, so it's not like it'd be considered lame) though instead she'd chosen to take her. Something about this made Alison want to reach out, to simply cup Beth's cheek and pull her in for even the most chaste of kisses.

She didn't though. Instead she just watched as Beth's hand's kept drifting up to feel the metal around her neck, as if checking to make sure it was still there. She grinned when she noticed the way Beth's eyes glimmered as if any second now tears of joy would begin to fall and she felt her heart skip a beat when Beth licked her lips, her tongue carefully tracing the lines of her smile.

God she was beautiful.

"What?" Beth's eyebrow quirked.

"Hm?" Alison's eyes went wide in her head (Good Godspell had she just said what she was thinking out loud? This wasn't happening! Was it?)

"You're just looking at me weird is all..." (OHTHANKGOD!)

"Oh no, no just…" Alison could feel the blush rising in her neck. "Happy that you're happy."

She could tell Beth saw there was something more hiding behind her eyes, and she braced herself as the other girl opened her mouth to say as much. She was quite literally saved by the bell though (well, Art Bell that was).

"Hey Childs!" He called, jogging over to meet the two women. "Since you and Paul won your races, and Angie and I both placed we were thinking of doing something this Friday to celebrate?"

"Oh?"

"Yea, we were thinking a lil get together like bowling or something," he explained. "You're welcome to bring a friend if you like," he added, turning to smile at Alison.

Beth didn't reply straight away. Instead she looked to Alison, as if asking the girl if they wanted to go or not.

"Oh, well I can't, I've plans," Alison shrugged. "But you guys have fun." She felt the need to add the last part, as if to push Beth to hang out with her friends (which was pretty dumb considering Beth was probably the most outgoing person she knew – aside from Felix obviously).

"Oh okay… well what do you say Childs," Art prompted, turning his attention back to Beth.

"I can't…" Beth replied after a moment of hesitation. "I promised my mom I'd help her with some painting."

"Not cool Childs, not cool," Art sighed, though his tone was teasing. "But whatever, just give me a text if you change your mind," he shrugged finally, before turning and running back into the crowd.

"So," Beth ventured once Art had disappeared. "Want to hang out on Friday?"

"Huh… I thought?" (What was happening here?)

"Yea, I kinda said that cos I'd kinda rather hang out with you than my 'jock' friends," Beth shrugged, trying to seem casual, though Alison could tell there was something else there.

"I uh… I actually do have plans for Friday." Even twenty years from now Alison wouldn't be over the way Beth's face dropped when she spoke.

"Oh. Shit, oh…" Beth rubbed the back of her neck awkwardly. "I uh… I thought you were just saying that because you didn't want to hang out with my jock friends either," she stammered.

Alison shook her head, wishing the ground would swallow her up as she saw Beth act awkwardly for only the second time ever (and this time was at least 100% worse).

"I could um –"

"Don't say cancel," Beth cut her off. "God, don't be an ass and ditch your friends just because I did." She was shaking her head violently as she spoke. "I'll just text Art tomorrow and tell him there was a change of plan."

"I was going to say," Alison continued indignantly (she never appreciated being interrupted). "That I could text my friends and tell them you'll be coming with us on Friday after school… that is if you don't mind hanging out with my friends as well?"

"Really?" Beth was smiling again (thank god as well because Alison's heart felt like it was breaking whenever she didn't).

"Yes Elizabeth really." Alison smirked at the way Beth now cringed when hearing her full name. "I mean god, you're my friend, it's only a matter of time before I introduce you anyway, so we may as well get it over and done with all at once."

"You make them sound like animals," Beth snorted.

"Oh good, I'm describing them accurately then."


	6. Chapter 6

"The infamous Elizabeth Childs," Felix commented casually, strutting up to where Beth and Alison stood outside the main doors of the high school. "I'm Felix, but my friend's call me wonderful," he introduced, holding out a hand which Beth took.

"His friend's call him an idiot," Sarah corrected, coming up behind him and smiling cockily at Beth. "I'm Sarah by the way, nice to meet yah," she added, though unlike Felix she made no move to initiate any form of contact.

"Oh god," Alison murmured, more to herself than anyone as she watched her friend's eye Beth like she was a slab of fresh meet and it was feeding time at the zoo.

"Hey." Beth finally managed to get a word in edgeways, and she first turned to address Felix, whose hand she was still holding. "Well I'm apparently the famous Elizabeth, though my friend's just call me Beth," she explained. "And hey," she turned then, dropping Felix's hand and offering Sarah a wave. "You must be the one that causes Ali to have a new stomach ulcer every other week… or so I'm told," she teased lightly.

"Well I keep tellin' her crime's more fun than all that school bullshit, but she mother's me anyway," Sarah replied with a shrug.

"You'll thank me when you walk at graduation," Alison grumbled, though her cold expression quickly transformed to a grin when Beth laughed.

"So, what're we doing?" Beth asked then, looking to any of the three people around her for conformation.

It was Felix that spoke up first. "Sarah's place," he explained. "We're just waiting on her boyfriend Cal to get here and-"

"Oh, Cal said he'd meet us at S's," Sarah interrupted with a shrug.

"Right then so," Felix continued. "That means we're just waiting on the world's greatest lovers… oh, wait," he paused, looking between Beth and Alison up at the school doors. "Never mind, here they are now, Bonnie and Claudette."

"Lame nickname man, lame nickname," Cosima shook her head as she and Delphine came to a stop behind Beth and Alison – the pair stepping apart to allow them into the circle.

"I thought it was quite inspired."

-.-.-.-

Beth… liked Alison's friends.

Yes, she liked them.

She understood why Alison had been so nervous to introduce her – because these were exactly the kinds of people that most people would run a mile from – but she couldn't help but be charmed by their individuality.

She knew from the second she met Sarah that the girl was no nonsense, yet also the kind of person you could really rely on when the time came. Felix was the same really, though his straight forward attitude came with a much more appealing (and flamboyant) flare, with his quick quips having Beth sniggering every few minutes. Cal was the strong silent type, though also surprisingly sweet – and surprisingly patient to put up with Sarah full time. Cosima was unique – the kind of person you'd write off in a second as a burned out stoner until you heard her slip in sly scientific comments or jargon to the conversation that most people would need to google to make sense of. Delphine, again, was in the same boat as her girlfriend – the kind of person you'd write off (though in this case as the dumb blonde) until she blindsided you with the detailed concepts and theories she liked to bounce off Cosima.

Yes, they were certainly a unique group, and definitely not the type of people Beth had been expecting when Alison had mentioned her friends (that Aynsley girl in Beth's geography class maybe) though she could certainly see why Alison was so fond of them.

"Okay," Sarah piped up, lifting her head from Cal's shoulder to address the room once conversation lulled for the first time since they'd all arrived in Sarah's livingroom. "Time to ask the real questions… Beth," she untangled her hand from Cal's to point an accusing finger.

Beth stiffened. This was the part where she was asked why she moved here. What prompted her to drop everything in the middle of a school year and re-locate. She braced herself, hoping Alison – who was pressed up against her side so their shoulders and thighs were touching – wouldn't notice the way she tensed.

"Why oh why," she drawled the words out slowly and Beth felt her heartbeat quicken. "Would you choose an evenin' like this, over celebratory bowling with your cool friends?"

"Um…" Beth didn't care that she was smiling at the question; hell she was almost laughing at the question she was so relieved. "I wanted to meet you guys." It wasn't a lie, Alison had talked a lot about them, and she was curious, she was just leaving out the part where she'd been dumbly eager to hang out with the girl who she could swear was ever so slightly leaning into her.

"Wow Alison, you're getting slack at the whole bad-mouthing us thing," Cosima teased. "Next thing you know Aynsley Norris is gonna be here smoking a fat one."

"That frigid bitch ain't settin' a foot into this house," Sarah insisted.

"Well in truth, Alison did give me a uh… brief warning," Beth tried to conceal a smirk ("They will tear you apart so don't trust them! Any of them! Not even Delphine, she lures you in with the hair and the accent but she's just as bad as the rest of them. Cal's the nearest thing you have to an ally once you're in there but don't let his tough exterior fool you. He's good and whipped and can do nothing to save you from the wrath of Sarah Manning. Got it?").

"By brief do you mean a manila folder full of stats and figures pertaining to each of us and our vices?" Felix teased – though Beth suspected it wasn't far past the realm of possibility.

"I merely gave her a rundown of what to expect," Alison snapped before Beth got a chance to reply.

"Well either way," Sarah continued. "You could meet us anytime… why the one evening you've got other plans?" She was like a dog with a bone.

"Well because…" She paused, wanting to take a minute to figure out what exactly to say. "Alison's the best friend I've made since I got here, and you all seem pretty important to her… plus Paul keeps hitting on me and uh… I'm not too keen."

"Paul is hot though," Delphine commented.

"Hey, watch it!" Cosima threatened teasingly, poking her girlfriend in the side. "I will not have you drooling after anyone else on my watch."

"Huh, rich coming from the one who was drooling after – " Alison stopped herself, and Beth wondered why.

"Don't worry," Delphine soothed. "I find you much hotter." Then she whispered something in Cosima's ear that no one could hear – though whatever it was had the colour rising in Cosima's cheeks.

"Well I guess that seals it," Sarah nodded thoughtfully once Cosima had cleared her throat and wrapped her arm more firmly around Delphine's waist. "Looks like you're one of us now."

"Really?" Beth had presumed she'd at the very least have to walk over hot coals.

"Don't look so happy about it," Cal chuckled. "It just means they're going to insult you more."

"Oui, it's true… no flaw or insecurity is safe," Delphine added with a firm nod.

"Oi, watch it you two," Sarah threatened. "You're still in your six month trial period." She pointed to Delphine. "And I could kick you to the curb at any second," she added looking up menacingly at Cal.

"And risk not getting breakfast in bed whenever I'm home?" Cal quirked his brow at the woman in his lap.

"I'd get Mrs S to make it for me," Sarah shrugged, though she quickly tore off into laughter at the very thought of it, just as the rest of the group did.

Even Beth was in on the joke, having me Sarah's adoptive mother briefly when they first arrived. ("Shoes off at the door please. Ah for fuck sakes Cosima I said shoes off!" "Sorry S, sorry!" "you will be if that stain doesn't come out of my carpet young – oh, and who is it we have here then?" "Uh… I'm Beth." "Beth, nice name for a brave girl?" "Sorry?" "Well you're hanging out with this lot aren't you.").

-.-.-.-

"So," Alison drew out the syllable as her and Beth walked down the footpath away from Sarah's house several hours later.

"Mhm?" Beth questioned, and Alison tried to ignore the way she hooked their arms together as they walked.

"You're not scared out of being my friend are you?"

"Ali, even if your friends had been monsters, that wouldn't make me not want to hang out with you." There was a softness in Beth's tone that made Alison blush. "Not that it matters, because I happen to think they're really fucking cool people," she added, glancing at Alison with a genuine smile etched on her lips.

"Good," Alison smiled, adding after a moment "it's just kind of important to me that you do."

"Can I ask why?" Beth questioned as they crossed the street into an alley between two buildings that acted as a shortcut to Alison's house (where after yet another odd phone call between Alison and Beth's mother, it had been agreed Beth could stay the night).

"Because they're some of the most important people in my life," Alison replied instantly, as if it were the most obvious thing. "And because…" Her sentence trailed off as her feet slowed to a stop, forcing Beth to stop with her thanks to their linked arms.

"And because?" Beth prompted, unhooking their arms so she could turn to face Alison properly.

"Well…" Alison paused, clearing her throat. "You know…" (why was she being so awkward about this?).

"I really don't know though, that's the problem," Beth teased, though her voice was soft and encouraging none the less.

"Well, because you've very quickly become one of the most important people in my life as well." Her voice was soft and she averted her gaze as her cheeks grew surprisingly warm in the harsh air. "If you must know," she added then, clearing her throat and looking back at Beth, almost angry at her for making her say something so… so… close to the truth.

"Oh… well… you're pretty important to me too." Beth was awkward again, not that Alison really noticed as she turned on her heel and walked away at lightning speed.

-.-.-.-

The rest of the walk to Alison's was filled by a pregnant silence neither girl was brave enough to break. A wall had also seemed to go up between them. There were no more light touches, or looping of arms; instead they stood as far away as possible on the footpath, not daring to as much as glance at one another.

By the time they got back to Alison's and had ascended the stairs Alison was in turmoil. By the time they'd closed the door to Alison's room and were stood staring at one another, she was ready to tear her eyeballs out.

Something needed to be said, she just didn't know what.

"So I guess I could make a bed for myself on the floor, or we could top and tail," Beth suggested.

Alison merely blinked.

Beth's words sounded stilted and awkward and fake and never in her life had Alison heard anything that sounded worse. Yes, something needed to be said, and if Beth wasn't going to do it –

"You're the most important person in my life right now," Alison said matter of factly, before her brain had a chance to erect big huge warning signs and flag her tongue to a stop.

"Sorry?" Beth didn't look uncomfortable, just confused, and maybe, just maybe, a little hopeful.

Alison's hand went instinctively to her neck, where it twisted across the skin. "I just… I mean you're," she cleared her throat, and her hand moved to run across her collarbone. "I mean I think… highly of you and… a lot… I think a lot about…" (oh god why had she been the idiot to say something first).

"Okay Ali," Beth's voice was soft and she took several steps towards Alison, a smile crinkling the corners of her mouth. "I feel like I'm watching The King's Speech or something… what is it?" She placed both her hands on Alison's arms and rubbed up and down soothingly, and Alison knew then and there she was fudged.

She was royally fudged.

By the time her lips connected with Beth's her brain was already screaming at her to abort mission. She ignored it though, and even when she felt Beth tense against her searing kiss she merely balled her fists by her sides and kissed harder, leaning her weight against the other girl. With every passing millisecond that Beth didn't kiss her back though Alison began to lose her nerve and it wasn't until she began to pull her lips away that Beth finally seemed to read her mind and kiss back.

Beth's arms were strong from hours spent at the gym and Alison noticed this for the first time as said arms were wrapped around her waist, pulling her back into their embrace. She then felt it for the first time when her hands came to rest on Beth's toned biceps. She ran her fingers across them, wishing the material of Beth's jacket wasn't in the way. She forgot all about Beth's jacket though when her hands ran up Beth's shoulders and her fingers tangled in the hair that had been left out of a ponytail today. Instead she relished in the way Beth moaned against her lips when her fingers scrapped against the base of her skull.

Before either of them could fully comprehend the situation at hand Alison was slowly guiding Beth back towards her bed. They hit the mattress and toppled back into the sheets in a storm of kisses and roaming hands.

Alison felt a surge of power when she landed on top, and done her best to capitalise on the situation. She straddled Beth around the waist with her calves and let one hand rest either side of Beth's head as her mouth rained down on all exposed skin; lips, cheeks, chin, jaw, neck, ear. It was all a blur and all Alison knew was that she liked it and she never wanted it to end.

Another thing she never wanted to end was how Beth's hands roamed in a way hers couldn't as they supported her weight. They were on her ass, they were running up the sides of her shirt, the were tracing the bumps of her spine through the cotton material, they were exploring the tensed muscles of her stomach and then –

"Oh!" Alison squeaked against Beth's lips when a set of hands slid under her top and splayed out across her stomach.

"You… you okay?" Beth pulled back from the kiss, presuming she'd done something wrong, or gone too far.

"Your hands are just cold." She was already reattaching their mouths as she spoke.

Beth took this as permission to continue her exploring and Alison felt a shudder through her spine as cold fingers traced across her abdomen and up her ribs, stopping at a respectable distance from Alison's bra before repeating the journey back down to her bellybutton. Beth's hands and tongue roamed, and suddenly Alison didn't feel like being on top equalled power anymore. She didn't care though; instead she let her body melt against Beth's touch and her lips burn with a kind of hunger she'd never felt before.

Eventually though passion and intensity waned into chaste kisses and long hugs, broken only by the occasional giggle as they lay wrapped in one another's arms.

"What did we just do," Alison murmured, her words being the first ones spoken in what felt like days.

"Don't ask me," Beth replied, sealing her words in a brief kiss against the tip of Alison's nose. "One minute you're rambling incoherently and the next you're tackling me onto a bed."

"I thought you weren't going to kiss me back," Alison pointed – not that she minded now as Beth's fingers, still under the fabric of her shirt, traced shapes in her back.

"Well excuse me for taking a minute to adjust to the fact that I was being kissed by probably the most attractive person ever," Beth teased smugly.

"Don't be ridiculous," Alison shot down the compliment instantly, feeling a different kind of flush in her cheeks now. "I'm far from –"

Beth's lips silenced her as they moved slowly across her mouth, wiping it clean of whatever she'd been about to say. "Rule number one if we're going to do this," Beth hummed into the corner of Alison's lips. "You accept my compliments, because I mean them."

"Deal," Alison nodded; half because she aimed to please and half because she genuinely wanted to believe what Beth saw in her. "Can I ask though," she added as an afterthought. "What exactly is this?"

"This," Beth smiled, her hands splaying out across Alison's back to pull her closer. "Is us kissing and cuddling, and it can be us holding hands when we walk to English together, or it can be us sitting at a respectable distance from one another at all times… It's whatever we're ready for it to be, okay?"

Alison ran her fingers a few times through Beth's hair. "Okay."

-.-.-.-

Long after everyone else had left Sarah's, Felix finally rose from his seat, having had enough of what had more or less turned into a Sarah and Cal make out session. "You know," he mused, just loud enough for the two to part lips. "It's really going to suck being the only single one in the group."

"What the hell are you on about Fee?" Sarah snorted, her arms wound tight around Cal's neck.

"Well there's Cosima and Delphine, there's you two." He made sure to sound mildly disgusted when he said it, just to make it clear how little he liked being made third wheel. "And then there's Alison and Beth."

Sarah laughed, like really laughed. "Are you," she wheezed as booming laughter continued to rise up from the pit of her stomach. "Seriously saying that Alison, our Alison is even remotely in the territory of homosexuality." There were tears staining her cheeks by the time she actually managed to get the full sentence out.

"My lesbian senses are tingling," Felix merely shrugged.

"You're wrong," Sarah shook her head. "Like Jesus Fee, never have you been more wrong."

"Twenty bucks says I'm not," Felix demanded.

"Fine," Sarah was just as serious. "Twenty it is."

"Cal, you're baring witness to this," Felix added then. "She can't back out."

"Scouts honour, I won't let her," Cal nodded. "Though I'm inclined to think it won't be her needing to back out," he added then.

"Ugh, you two are just so heterosexual," Felix groaned flippantly. "I'm telling you, my gaydar was beeping to the tune of Diana Ross's 'I'm Coming Out' all night."


	7. Chapter 7

"So, what're we doing this weekend?" Beth questioned as she slid in on the lunch bench next to Alison, making sure to keep a respectable distance between them, as always.

Beth had become a permanent fixture in Alison's daily routine after that night. She'd joined Alison and her friend's at lunch now rather than sitting with the track team, and after school she went straight to Alison's on days they didn't have activities, and on days they did Beth would either hang around the auditorium waiting for Alison to finish, or Alison would loiter awkwardly next to the running field, watching as Beth raced circles around everyone else in the club.

The only day they weren't able to spend time together was Tuesdays, when Beth left right after the last class of the day, explaining to Alison that it was the one day her mom insisted on spending quality time with her – Alison kind of resented Beth's mother for this, though then again, it probably would suck forgetting what your daughter looked like (plus it was kind of nice to have at least one day a week where her homework wasn't periodically interrupted by lips tracing the shell of her ear… actually, who was she kidding, that was the best part of homework).

The weekends then were reserved for hanging out in Sarah's living room, Felix's loft or Cosima's basement (of course Alison never offered her house because the mere thought of her mother overhearing some of the topics of conversation).

Both girls felt most at ease when hanging out with their friends. While they'd decided to wait a few weeks before telling anyone they were seeing one another – allow themselves time to test the waters and get used to dating a girl (how the hell had this been so easy for Delphine, like really guys were just so much simpler sometimes) – they didn't feel as much of an obligation to outright hide their relationship when with their friends.

Of course they'd begin the evening at arm's length, though within an hour Beth would have herself lying in Alison's lap, letting her brush the knots out of her hair with her fingers, or Alison would have herself curled into Beth's side with the comforting feeling of the track star's delicate fingers tracing shapes in her shoulder blade.

They knew at least Felix must have copped at this point, and each time they hung out they expected a storm of questions and accusations, though none came. Their friends were either, for the first time ever, respecting other people's boundaries, or they were far more oblivious than they thought ("It's probably because you're so straight." "What's that supposed to mean?" "Oh come on Ali, you're the last person anyone would think was gay!" "So are you!" "Yea, but I do sports so there's always a chance." "Are you saying I'm too straight?" "Well no, not too straight, otherwise this would be a very one sided relationship.").

"Glad you asked Bethany!" Sarah announced smugly, looking like she'd been waiting all morning for someone to care enough to pose the question.

"My name's not even…" Though Beth trailed off shaking her head, instead motioning for Sarah to continue.

"Mrs S's out of town for the weekend, some Carlton she wanted t'visit or somethin'," she shrugged, not really caring for the reason. "And since Cal, and more importantly Cal's ID, is home for the weekend I thought we might have a little get together at mine tonight?"

"What happened to your fake ID?" Felix inquired.

"S may or may not have found it along with a bottle of bourbon," Sarah muttered sheepishly.

"Go figure." Felix rolled his eyes.

"Whatever, so are ya's up for it or not?"

"Does this mean I can smoke a joint in your house now?" Cosima looked hopeful.

"And I can smoke a cigarette without Mrs S giving out about my lungs?" Delphine's expression matched her girlfriend's.

"Yeah, yeah, I'll tell Cal to buy some air-fresheners when he's at the shop later," Sarah waved them off.

"Good plan," Beth sniggered. "A few air-fresheners to divert attention away from the trolley full of alcohol."

"Oi, another word and all you'll be getting is apple juice yeah?" Sarah flicked a chip at her. "Anyway, gimme your drink orders now so I can text Cal… you can just gimme the cash at mine later."

Sarah didn't bother to ask Alison, and when Beth shot her (super-secret) girlfriend a quizzical look once everyone else had gotten back to their food, the other girl merely shook her head, clearly indicating it was a story for another day before turning her attention back to Felix and Sarah as they bitched mercilessly about other students.

-.-.-.-

They'd agreed to meet at Sarah's about half eight or nine, figuring that if they were staying the night any earlier would mean a bit more drinking than any of them could handle, and even Beth and Alison had parted ways after school in order to go home and pack an overnight bag (with a few extra essentials in case this turned into a full weekend of fun).

"So," Felix announced, strolling through the door and into the kitchen at a quarter to nine. "You ready to test our theory?" He turned to Sarah who was sitting at the alcohol laden table with Cal and Delphine, with Cosima leaning against a counter behind them, methodically rolling a joint.

"Oh a theory to test sounds right up my street," Cosima chimed in, never looking up from her work. "What're we testing?"

"The Are Alison Hendrix and Elizabeth Childs Raging Lesbians Test of course," Felix replied happily, pulling up a seat of his own at the table.

"Christ, are we still on that Fee," Sarah rolled her eyes. "It's been like three weeks now."

"Yea, I hate to say it man, but I think you just about owe Sarah her twenty," Cal shrugged.

"I dunno dude," Cosima pointed, finally pressing her blunt safely between her ear and her temple. "I think Felix could be onto something."

"Really?" Delphine turned in her seat to face her girlfriend. "You think?"

"Well yea… kinda," Cosima shrugged, turning as she spoke to sweep the leftover weed off the counter into her hand and back into the little circular container she kept in her bag. "Why, you disagree?"

"Yes," Delphine nodded slowly. "I think for once I'm inclined to agree with Sarah."

"You see that Fee, this crazy theory of yours is driving a wedge between Romeo and Juliet over here," Sarah scoffed, choosing to ignore the 'for once' part (as if she wasn't right all the time).

"Not for much longer," Felix insisted. "Tonight Beth is going to get plastered, and Alison is going to loosen up slightly more than usual and then," he paused dramatically. "We play spin the bottle."

"Damn man, you're determine," Cal shook his head laughing.

"Evil, I love it," Sarah nodded, a wicked smirk defining her features.

"Is that a yes then?" Felix prompted, wanting his plan to be agreed on before the other two got here.

"I do love social experiments," Delphine shrugged.

"And I do love proving Sarah Manning wrong," Cosima agreed.

"Oh, I really do enjoy it when we can all agree on something," Felix gushed, wiping a fake tear from his eye.

-.-.-.-

"Hey!" Beth called, jogging up the street towards Sarah's house as Alison emerged from a car at the bottom of Sarah's gate.

"You did not jog all the way here." Even with all the time she spent watching Beth train now after school, she was still amazed by her ability.

"You know you should stop being so amazed by me, it only raises my ego," Beth commented, before turning to wave politely at Alison's dad as he pulled away from Sarah's house. "And you know how dangerous that can be," she added, once Mr. Hendrix (or Tom, as he'd repeatedly insisted Beth call him) had indicated off the street and Alison had turned her attention back to her.

"Oh trust me, I'm aware," Alison sighed knowingly. "Though it can be difficult, considering you are pretty amazing," she added, glancing around quickly before planting a quick kiss into the corner of Beth's lip.

"Touché," Beth nodded, grinning when Alison's face lingered close to hers for just a second before she pulled away completely. "Shall we?" She added then, motioning up the front path towards Sarah's door.

"Well, wouldn't want to keep the party waiting," Alison agreed, and they both stepped through the gate together.

"Ali," Beth inquired just before they reached the door. "Why's your bag jingling?"

"Oh, It's my alcohol for the night," Alison explained. "I brought my own."

"Why'd you-"

Alison placed her free hand on Beth's upper arm, silencing her. "I'll explain later," was all she said before letting it drop back to her side and allowing Beth to push open the door.

-.-.-.-

"They arrived together," Felix whispered, lifting his eyebrows knowingly in Sarah's direction.

Sarah merely raised her middle finger and scowled, choosing to otherwise ignore the comment, instead turning her attention to the new arrivals. "Punctual as ever," she teased Alison, noticing it was right on the dot of nine o'clock.

"Someone has to be," Alison replied curtly, directing her comment at Cosima who was still leaning against the counter.

"Hey, I'm here before you am I not," Cosima pointed defensively.

"Only because I made sure you were ma Cherie," Delphine reminded her.

"You're meant to be on my side here," Cosima huffed, though Delphine merely laughed at her childlike expression.

"Does this mean we can get this party started then?" Felix hyped up.

"I don't see why we should stay sober for a second longer," Sarah nodded in affirmation. "Beth, your cider's in the fridge," she added.

"Cool," Beth dropped her overnight bag on in the livingroom before walking through the alcove to the kitchen and opening the fridge door. "So what's the plan for the evening?" She asked over her shoulder as she took out a bottle out and popped the cap off with the bottle opener on the counter.

"Just chilling," Sarah shrugged as she poured a generous amount of bourbon into a glass before sliding the bottle of alcohol down the table to Cal.

"Then some party games," Felix waggled his eyebrows at Beth as she turned round, momentarily averting his attention from the coke he was mixing with his vodka.

"Party games? Are we twelve?" Alison complained, taking a bottle of white wine out of her bag. "Thanks," she added, when Beth wordlessly handed her a wineglass from the press.

"We're not playing musical chairs Ali," Cosima snorted, pouring a generous amount of Baileys into a glass before passing the bottle to Delphine.

"We were thinking more along the lines of Spin The Bottle and Never Have I Ever actually," Felix added, failing miserably to stop a smile from spreading, though concealing it well anyway when he took a gulp of his drink. "Shit that's strong," he winced, reaching again for the coke bottle.

-.-.-.-

"Neva' have I eva'," Sarah's accent was so thick her words were barely distinguishable at this point, as she sat on Cal's knee in one of the armchairs and grinned mischievously at what she was about to say. "Shagged someone during a gym class." She was staring pointedly at Felix when she spoke.

"Oh fuck off," he huffed as he took yet another gulp of his drink. "You can't just direct all of these at me because I'm dumb enough to tell you shit."

"Uh, yeah, I can actually," Sarah sniggered. "Oi wait a second, what's this?!" She added, losing interest in Felix when Cosima and Delphine both tried to drink without being noticed.

"Way I see it exercise is exercise," Cosima shrugged, taking a long drag of the blunt she had caught between two fingers, before passing it down to Felix who'd seated himself at the foot of the chair being shared by Cosima and Delphine – the shorter girl having managed to drape herself completely across her girlfriend's lap, throwing her legs out over the arm of the seat.

"At school though," Alison wrinkled her nose, her hands momentarily stalling in Beth's hair, as the other girl lay stretched out across the couch with her head in Alison's lap (it'd been a bit of a hindrance at first, though Sarah had managed to produce a box of straws from thin air, and since then Alison hadn't been nearly as worried that she'd end up with cider on her jeans when Beth drunkenly tried to take a swig).

"Oh just cos you're so frigid," Felix brushed off.

"I am not," Alison could feel the blush creeping in her cheeks.

"Never have I ever had sex then," Felix shot back, and with a low grumble everyone in the room bar Alison slowly raised their drinks to their mouth (or in Beth's case wound her tongue around the straw while trying to move as little as possible).

"Really?" Beth's question wasn't mocking in the same way Felix's would have been, or patronizing like Sarah's; it was soft and comforting and didn't make Alison feel embarrassed in the same way she did when Delphine talked so flippantly about sex, as if everyone should know what she was on about.

"Really." Was all Alison murmured in response and Beth didn't smile, didn't laugh, didn't make further comment, instead she reached up with the hand that wasn't holding her drink and grabbed the one that Alison wasn't running through her hair, holding it between the couch and her body so no one else could see.

"Don't listen to them Ali," Cal insisted, feeling a twang of pity for the way their friends (unintentionally) hit a nerve. "I'm sure the kind of sex you have during a gym class isn't the kind of sex most people would be jealous of anyway."

"Yea seriously," Cosima too seemed to catch on to what Cal had noticed. "I mean my first time was with Delphine and like seriously dude, it's way better to wait until you're with someone that you really love, y'know?" She comforted, smiling when Delphine lifted her hand and placed a soft kiss into the palm.

"Oh don't worry," Alison insisted then, bouncing back quickly from Felix's comment (it hadn't hit a nerve worse than if he'd said something to Cal about him being whipped, plus wine made her chirpy). "Felix is just jealous that I've no regrets, while he can never take back that time he showed that weird kid in my theatre class 'A Whole New World'," Alison sniggered at the memory of Felix's disgusted and horrified expression when he'd explained to her why he'd never be seeing Tommy again ("A whole new bloody world Alison! Don't laugh it's not funny, that's actually what he said. Those are the actual words that he used while… while… oh god, I don't even know if I can say the word orgasm anymore without feeling perverse.")

"She has a point there," Felix nodded sombrely, still cringing at the memory.

"Okay I'm bored o' this game," Sarah sighed then, having run out of good Never Have I Ever's about half an hour ago.

"New game?" Delphine suggested, and Felix was nodding before she was even finished her sentence.

"I think it's spin the bottle time!" He announced gleefully, snatching one of Beth's empty cider bottles from where she was neatly lining them along the edge of the couch (wow she was spending a lot of time with Alison).

"Oh god, really?" Alison rolled her eyes and stared in bewilderment as her friends all seemed to just go along with the idea.

"Oh come on you two," Cosima grinned as she hopped off Delphine's lap and helped the blonde to her feet. "It'll be fun," she promised as she sat down next to Felix in the makeshift circle with Delphine on her other side.

"I don't wanna kiss Sarah though," Beth groaned dramatically, as she begrudgingly lifted her head off Alison's lap.

"Oi, who says I'll let yah," Sarah scowled from where she now sat cross legged on the floor between Felix and Cal.

"Okay, how about this," Felix suggested then as Beth took a seat next to Cal. "If we land on someone we're not willing to kiss we get to take a pass and drink instead," he suggested. "But, we can only pass once… so choose wisely," he added, his tone grave for dramatic effect.

"Sounds like a fair plan," Cal nodded. "So you in or not Ali?" He added, turning to the girl that was still seated firmly on the couch.

"Fine," Alison huffed eventually as all eyes turned to her. "Fine, I'll play your silly game." She slid off the couch then, taking her place between Beth and Delphine and thus completing the circle.

"Who's going first then?" Cosima questioned, stubbing her blunt out in the ashtray on the floor before turning her attention back to the circle.

"Me!" Felix called gleefully, placing the bottle he still held firmly in his hand into the middle of the circle and spinning it violently.

It spun for a couple of seconds before eventually landing on Delphine. "Oh my," the blonde muttered, though Felix was already smiling.

"Oh, a french kiss from a real French person, how cultured of me," he joked, leaning over Cosima towards Delphine. "You ready?" When she nodded her pressed his lips against hers, pulling back after no more than three seconds. "Ah," he mused as he wiped his lips absently. "Always good to be reminded of how gay you are."

Delphine was next, and hers landed on Sarah, who looked more than a little put out but allowed their lips to brush very briefly anyway. She then spun and landed on Cosima ("Oh for fuck sakes, can I not kiss one without kissing the other?") and almost considered taking her free out drink though at the last minute decided to save it for if she got Beth ("No offence." "Oh none taken, trust me."). Then it was Cosima's turn, and she giggled hysterically when she landed on Felix ("Have you two decided you want a 3some with me or something?"). He then got Alison on his spin, and she got Cal on hers ("I'm watching you Hendrix." "Sarah stop being so intimidating." "I'm watching you too Morrison."). Cal then got Felix and the entire circle erupted into laughter as both men quickly lifted their drinks to their lips. Then it was Felix's turn and this time he landed on Beth who got the kiss over with quickly before taking her own spin and landing on –

The eyes of the entire group went wide as the bottle slowed to a stop pointing at Alison. No one spoke; no one even dared breath other than Felix who barely managed to muffle his strangled squeal of excitement.

"Um," Beth's eyes had grown just as wide as everyone else's a she slowly turned to Alison – if ever the term "deer caught in headlights" had been accurate it was now.

"You've always got that free out," Felix reminded them – though if anything, using that would just prove his point more.

Alison gulped, she'd only half heard Felix, and even so, she noticed Beth wasn't raising a glass to her lips. It was only a kiss after all – they weren't animals, they could manage to kiss one another for a few seconds without it turning into a full on make-out session.

Simple.

Right?

It was Beth that leaned in first, though she hesitated with her breath tickling Alison's skin, waiting for the other girl to close the gap and thus grant permission. When Alison did finally oblige Beth was as surprised as anyone at the moan that slipped out of her mouth at the contact (like Jesus could she not keep it in her pants for one goddamn second). Alison's hand rested over one of Beth's on the floor as she leaned in further to the kiss and Beth could feel Alison's tongue begin to dart slowly from her mouth before she seemed to realise what she was doing (thank god one of them was sober enough to) and she retracted it quickly, before pulling out of the kiss entirely.

They both looked at one another for a moment before turning back to the group, silently trying to assess the situation (well, the moan was a little unfortunate, but other than that it was a pretty standard 3 second spin the bottle kiss, right?).

"Oh my god." Felix's jaw was basically on the floor. "Fifteen seconds… that lasted fifteen seconds."

"No it…" But Alison trailed off as a synchronised head nod Mexican waved around the circle.

"We can…" Beth began awkwardly, though she too fell silent when she realised no one really seemed all that interested in an explanation.

"You owe me twenty dollars!" Felix was shouting merrily across the room, finger pointing at Sarah and a shit eating grin plastered across his face.

"That doesn't prove anything..." Sarah huffed, refusing to concede.

"Dude…" Cosima snorted. "Give it up."

"I must say Sarah," Delphine nodded gravely. "Seems we've lost this one."

"Typical French," Sarah grumbled, still refusing to admit defeat. "Swapping sides when the going gets rough."

"Rules are rules Sarah… and as bet commissioner I have to enforce them," Cal informed the woman beside him, trying (for the sake of his balls) not to laugh at how unreasonable Sarah was becoming over the situation.

"No sex for a month," Sarah snapped, and just like that Cal shut his mouth (so much for that then).

"Wait what," Beth gestured between her friends. "What's going on here?"

"Oh honey," Felix patronised. "How adorable, did you really think we didn't know? Well…" He added then, smirking at Sarah. "That some of us didn't know anyway."

"What? What are you talking about I… we…" Alison felt the colour rising in her cheeks.

"Ali, you two are more touchy feely than me and Delphine," Cosima sniggered. "What? Right, okay fine… almost as touchy feely," she corrected then, as all eyes in the room, including her girlfriends, threw her a sceptical look.

"And you're not like… mad we didn't tell you?" Alison ventured hesitantly.

A chorus of "no" echoed through the room followed by one resilient "yes" from Sarah.

"Of course I'm bloody mad, I owe this silly tit twenty dollars now, don't I," she grumbled, reaching into her back pocket and pulling the money out, flinging it at Felix, who grabbed it out of mid-air.

"Pleasure doing business," Felix wasn't even trying to school his features as he slipped the note into his front pocket.

"God you guys were placing bets," Beth groaned, her forehead falling onto Alison's shoulder.

"Well some of us may as well have been making money out of being constant third wheels," Felix explained calmly. "I mean the sexual tension was palpable."

"It wasn't that bad," Alison snapped, a long hard breath coming out her nose as she spoke.

"Says the one that spends her entire life running her fingers through Beth's hair!" Cosima accused.

"Well that was… she had tangles," Alison defended weakly.

"Which I'm sure you noticed during an intensive make-out session," Cosima fired back easily, a grin tugging at the corners of her lips (like damn she was witty when she was stoned).

"Well that's just… I mean totally…" Alison paused when Beth placed her hand over her knee.

"Babe, I think we've been found out," Beth murmured, lifting her head off Alison's shoulder to look her girlfriend in the eye.

"Babe. You called her babe, well that's just too cute!" Felix gushed, clapping his hands enthusiastically.

"Don't be such a fucking fangirl," Beth groaned, though she was smiling in spite of herself.

"I'll fangirl as much as I want thank you," Felix insisted, crossing his arms indignantly.

"That's what I was afraid of."


	8. Chapter 8

"My worst fear realised," Felix murmured the next morning, head spinning and stomach churning as expected.

"Wha's tha' then?" Sarah's voice was thick with sleep and she didn't bother to raise her head of Cal's chest as they lay together in a makeshift bed on the living room floor.

"Splittin' hangover and the official," he paused to count in his head. "Seventh wheel of this group."

"Ne'er mind that, how do you think we feel being the token heterosexuals," Sarah replied.

"Least you have one another," Felix pointed, lifting his head off the floor now to take in the room round him.

Sarah and a sleeping Cal lay in a bed on one side of Felix, with Sarah using Cal's chest as a pillow and his arms as a blanket. To his right then was Cosima and Delphine, still sleeping and as ever a tangle of arms and legs and oh so much hair. On the couch then Beth lay nestled between Alison's back and the back of the settee, her arm draped over Alison's waist and their fingers entwined as they slept.

"They're pretty cute, you have to give 'em that," Sarah whispered, noticing where Felix's eyes had fallen last.

"Doesn't make me any less single though," her best friend pointed, before throwing himself back onto his pillow, praying he'd be able to get another few hours' sleep and wake up with a slightly clearer head.

-.-.-.-

"That was… interesting," Beth mused as she walked hand in hand down Sarah's path with Alison several hours later.

"Mortifying's the word I'd use," Alison corrected absently, readjusting their clasped hands so their fingers laced together and she could trace her fingertips across Beth's knuckles.

"You're being dramatic," Beth laughed, trying to ignore the swell of warmth in her chest when Alison traced her skin. "They didn't even ask that much."

"Which makes it worse," Alison insisted. "They were placing bets on us Elizabeth!"

"Well look at it like this then, at least our relationship managed to lose Sarah some money," Beth joked. "You know, every cloud has a silver lining and all that…"

"We were going to tell them pretty soon anyway," Alison nodded eventually.

"And it's not like we were really trying to hide it," Beth added, glad that Alison was finally on board.

"I suppose you have a point."

They walked for another few minutes in silence, simply enjoying the way the afternoon rolled out in front of them – kids playing in yards and cars driving by lazily, with no need to rush to the office. Eventually they came to the alley Alison used as a shortcut and they slowed to a stop.

"I suppose I'll come over tonight?"

"Actually." Alison could see the surprise on Beth's face as she slowly began to speak. "I was wondering if I could come to your house like… now?"

"Uh…" Alison had never set foot in Beth's house in all the weeks they'd been dating and the question threw the track star right off kilter. "I mean… sure?"

"I just… don't feel up to going home," she explained, as if that should be all the explanation needed.

"Can I ask why?" Beth was curious, especially given the underlying discomfort in Alison's voice.

"It's to do with why I brought my own wine," Alison only kind of elaborated.

"Can I ask what that was about too?" Beth's question wasn't pushy or demanding, and Alison knew if she wanted she could avoid answering it, she just wasn't sure she wanted to.

"Well first, is it okay if I come to yours?" Alison diverted.

"I'll call mom now and ask," Beth nodded, slipping her phone out of her pocket.

The phone conversation was longer than was really necessary, just as all conversations between Beth and her mother tended to be, and just like all conversations it ended with Alison going on the phone to confirm that it was in fact her Beth was with. Beth blushed profusely at this, and quickly grabbed the phone back off Alison, hurriedly muttering her goodbyes before hanging it up and shoving the device back into her pocket.

"I swear, she's so over protective," she huffed, and Alison didn't miss the contempt in her voice.

"I'm allowed to stay though?" Alison wasn't actually sure of the answer, even after the lengthy call.

"Yea, yea course you can," Beth nodded, her smile returning as they set off walking again. "So uh… wanna tell me what the deal is?" She added after a moment of weighing up whether she should ask again or whether she should let the topic go.

"My mother's an alcoholic," Alison replied stiffly, not taking her eyes off the path in front of her, even when Beth turned her head to try and catch her eye.

"Oh I'm-" But she stopped short, knowing sorry wasn't a helpful thing to hear.

"Mm, yes well it is what it is." Alison tried to brush it off. "Anyway, she refuses to admit it, so whenever I can I take alcohol from the house so she can't drink it and well… she tends to give me the cold shoulder the next day, which isn't really something I like to deal with." She paused for a while then, mulling over her thoughts before continuing. "And I don't want you to think less of her you know… she's not one of those alcoholics you see outside liquor stores downtown… she's suburban, she keeps up appearances… she's not… a drunk."

Beth nodded slowly, allowing herself to absorb the information. "Yea, I know your mom, and I think she's cool… I'd never think less of her." It may not have been one hundred per cent true, though Beth said it anyway, knowing that right now it was what Alison needed to hear.

-.-.-.-

Beth's house was nice, Alison decided, as they walked up the tarred driveway fifteen minutes later. It was much like her own in the sense that it was your typical cul de sac, though there was something slightly off beat about it that Alison couldn't quite place, though for some reason it reminded her of Beth in a way that made her smile. When she stepped inside it was obvious right away that the house hadn't been lived in for very long. There were some pictures hung and others left sitting on the ground next to a pack of nails ("Yea, it's kinda supposed to be my job to put those up."), there were also boxes sitting in the living room corner, full of knick knacks that a place hadn't quite been found for yet, though that were too important to merely be left in the garage to rot.

They were greeted in the hall by Beth's mother, just as they were about to climb the stairs to her room. Alison couldn't help but notice the strained look on Beth's face and she took a mental note to ask about it later.

"Oh you're home!" The woman greeted, wiping her hands on her jeans as she emerged from the kitchen. "And you must be Alison!" She added, spotting her on the first step of the stairs and extending her hand.

"Yes," Alison nodded politely. "That's me. It's lovely to finally meet you Ms Childs." She reached out her hand as she spoke to shake the one that had been offered to her.

"Oh please, call me Susan," Ms Ch- Susan corrected, waving off the formality with a grin before turning her attention to her daughter. "Did you have fun lastnight?"

"Yea it was good…" Beth half shrugged, not seeming too keen on the conversation.

"Whose house were you at again?" She enquired.

"Sarah's," Beth replied simply. "Sarah Manning."

"Oh of course… And you didn't drink too much?" Alison stifled a breath at the question, though it seemed like water off a ducks back for Beth.

"No, just some cider," she shrugged again.

"Good, good," Susan nodded, not seeming perplexed by her daughters underage drinking. "Oh by the way dinner's in two hours, though you girls can eat in your room if you like?"

"Uh yea," Beth nodded. "We probably will… thanks." There was a brief awkward pause then before Susan cleared her throat.

"Well I must be getting along, this pork won't marinate itself. Don't forget to skype your father sometime this weekend by the way, he claims he's forgetting what you look like," she added with a wiry smile.

"I'll see if I can fit him into my busy life," Beth teased, seeming a lot more at ease now that her mother had stopped her interrogation.

Susan left then, shaking her head lightly at her daughters comment, and Beth turned to face Alison, who was still standing on the step in front of her. She pointed forward and Alison took the hint, turning on her heel and ascending the stairs. She took a wild guess that Beth's room was the one with the name "ELIZABETH" spelled out on the purple name plaque ("Cute." "Shut up, I've had it since I was born and mom insisted we bring it with us here." "Oh sure, your mom did.").

When Alison stepped inside she couldn't resist nodding once at the room in front of her. It was just so… Beth. The walls were a simple cream colour that matched the painted wood of her bed, desk, bedside tables and wardrobe. The under-sheets of her bed were also cream, though the duvet and pillows were a calming blue, as were her curtains. She had a book shelf by her desk as well, with one shelf designated for the intended purpose, and the other two being used to house various trophies and plaques. Finally, above her bed, her medal from the race a few weeks ago was hung in a simple cream frame.

"Huh…" Alison mused, completing her 360 spin around the room, stopping again on Beth, who was now closing the door behind them.

"What?" the other girl smiled, taking a step towards Alison and wrapping her arms around her waist.

"It's so… you," she mused, not quite knowing how else to say it.

"Uh, and you're rooms not 'so you'?" Beth snorted.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Alison huffed, leaning away from Beth's embrace, though not far enough to break Beth's linked fingers on her back.

"Your rooms literally all pink… other than the framed musical posters," Beth giggled lightly.

"It is not all pink, I have white walls and white furniture!" Alison corrected.

"Uh three white walls, and one fuchsia wall behind your bed," Beth countered.

"It's pastel pink Elizabeth," Alison rolled her eyes at her (obnoxious) girlfriend.

"Mhm, whatever you say," Beth mocked. "Now can we stop arguing and start kissing?"

"You'll be lucky if I ever kiss you again," Alison insisted, though she didn't even try to stop Beth as she pulled their bodies back together and pressed her lips into either side of Alison's mouth.

"You sure about that?" Beth purred, her breath tickling along the curve of Alison's cheek.

"What can I say," Alison sighed, draping her arms over Beth's shoulders. "I guess you're just super lucky."

-.-.-.-

"Can I ask a question?" Alison asked some time later.

They were settled in Beth's bed now with the covers ruffled and misplaced around them. They lay far closer than necessary on the queen sized mattress – sharing the one pillow with their legs tangled together and Beth's arm draped over Alison's waist tracing circles on her lower back where her top had rode up, with Alison's arm rested over Beth's jean clad thigh.

"Shoot," Beth mumbled, her eyes still closed as she nudged her face closer to her girlfriend so their noses and foreheads bumped softly.

"Look at me first," Alison insisted, though not in her usual demanding tone.

"Gladly." Beth's lips quirked into a smile and she opened her eyes, pulling back just enough so she could look at the girl beside her without going cross eyed.

"Beautiful," Alison grinned, taking a moment to let her eyes wander lazily over Beth's features, taking in the way her eyes crinkled when she grinned dumbly, and the way her nose was ever so slightly bent from when she'd broken it as a child ("long story involving blind man's bluff and a cousin that failed to inform me I was heading towards a wall").

"Stop being so soppy," Beth teased, trying to divert attention away from the colour rising in her cheeks as she felt Alison's eyes pour over her complexion. "Just ask your damn question."

"I was just wondering," Alison began, suddenly very aware of how she spoke. "Why you were so tense around your mom earlier?"

"What d'you mean?" Beth murmured, though Alison could sense that Beth knew exactly what she was talking about.

"You just…" She faltered, trying to think of the correct way to word what she wanted to say to avoid the possibility of Beth getting defensive. "Seemed like you didn't want to talk to her."

"Well you know," Beth shrugged with the shoulder that wasn't against the mattress. "She's super protective and shit, and I don't like it when she pries."

"Yet she knows you drink," Alison quirked her brow at her girlfriend.

"Well yea…" Beth puffed out a sigh (it was almost as if she'd forgotten Alison was sharp as a razor). "I mean she's protective but she's not dumb… she knows what teenagers do." It was a valid point after all – even Beth's mother had been eighteen years old once. "She claims she doesn't mind though as long as I remember to respect myself and others while I'm drunk, so I figure fair enough," she added on, almost as an afterthought.

"Oh…" Alison nodded. "Why is it she's so over protective can I ask?"

If she'd blinked she would have missed it. Alison Hendrix was not the kind of girl to blink during a serious conversation though, and by that token she didn't miss the split second of panic that flashed in Beth's eyes before she came up with (what Alison deemed to be) a passable lie.

"She just always has been." There was no falter in Beth's voice to indicate the words were anything other than the truth. "Only child and all that. It probably got worse after the divorce though… I'm all she has left kind of a thing."

"Oh." Alison nodded. "And now I'm stealing you away from her," she joked, deciding to drop the subject (for now).

Alison liked to think, liked to hope, that Beth would tell her if it was something important. The same way she'd told her about her mother and the same way she'd trusted her not to laugh like everyone else when she found out she was a virgin. She allowed herself to push the thought away; it was probably nothing, and even if it was something Alison trusted Beth to share when she was ready.

"I don't really mind being stolen," Beth grinned, dragging Alison from her thoughts as she leaned over on the pillow to press their lips together.

"Oh Miss Childs, are you trying to seduce me?" Alison giggled through the kiss.

"Oh god Ali," Beth snorted, rolling them so Alison was pinned under her. "You're such a dork."

"I'm your dork though," Alison reminded her, letting her hands fall instinctively on Beth's waist as the runner peppered her face in light laughter filled kisses.

"Yes, yes you are."


	9. Chapter 9

Alison's hands were up the back of Beth's top. Beth's thigh was positioned firmly between Alison's legs. Her tongue was trailing down the side of Alison's neck. This was heated making-out 101 and it really would be an awful time to be interrupted, so naturally –

"Dinner's ready!" Susan was rapping against Beth's bedroom door, causing the plaque to shake and thump off the wooden frame along with her knuckles.

"Uh," Beth lifted her head away from Alison's skin, obviously having forgotten where she was. "We'll be down… be down in a, uh, minute," she tripped over her words as she tried to catch her breath.

"Okay, but hurry or it'll go cold," she informed them before her footsteps were heard going back down the stairs.

"You don't think she uh…" Alison mumbled, only now realising just how enthusiastic she'd been regarding the positioning of Beth's thigh.

"Heard you gasping in the most adorable way ever?" Beth finished, smirking as she repositioned herself so she was straddling Alison's waist, and fixing down her top.

"Well… yes," Alison mumbled, trying to disguise the blush by covering as much of her face as possible while fixing her bangs.

"Nah," Beth shook her head and gave her a reassuring smile. "I think that was for my ears only."

"Good," Alison grinned back. "Because you know…"

"What reason would her daughter have to be making a girl make those noises?" Beth finished the sentence again as she stood off the bed and offered Alison a hand to do the same.

"Yea, something like that," Alison nodded, accepting Beth's outstretched hand and allowing herself to be pulled to her feet.

-.-.-.-

"You sure your mom doesn't mind us eating in your room?" Alison asked (for the third time) as they climbed the stairs, plates and cutlery in hand.

"If you want you can go back into the kitchen and eat with her," Beth shot back over her shoulder.

"No, no I just…" Alison trailed off with an uncomfortable sigh as she watched Beth try and open her bedroom door with her elbow, whilst haphazardly balancing everything else in her not so firm grasp.

"You afraid we'll get my bed sheets dirty?" Beth teased, knowing only too well this was the truth ("Elizabeth Childs what do you think you're doing?!" "Lying down next to you Ali…" "With a glass of orange!" "Well yea… I went to your kitchen to get it, remember?" "And while you were there you should have drank it. I won't have you spilling it all over my clean duvet." "You're not serious… oh my god you're serious.")

"Well…" (it's not your house, refrain from being bossy).

"I promise we'll be extra careful," Beth insisted sombrely. "I won't even try and distract you while we eat, and I'll not over-pile my fork."

"Now you're just mocking me," Alison huffed as she placed her fork and knife on the bedside table while Beth done the same on the far side of the bed.

"Am not, scouts honour," Beth replied, though the smirk was audible in her voice as she clamoured back on top of the duvet, being careful not to tip her plate to the side.

"You weren't even in the scouts." Alison shot Beth a glare.

"You don't know that," Beth countered, picking her glass up off the bedside table and taking a sip of the coke.

"Yes I – oh shoot," Alison faltered, watching as Beth set her cup back down. "I left my drink in the kitchen."

"Want me to go get it?" Beth offered, already lifting her plate off her lap so she could stand.

"No, no, I know where it is, I'll be two seconds," Alison waved her off, leaving her own plate on the bedside locker next to her fork and knife. "Don't make a mess," she added over her shoulder while she pulled open the bedroom door.

"Jesus you'd swear we were married," Beth grumbled under her breath as the wooden frame swung shut again behind Alison's petite figure.

-.-.-.-

Beth's mother was sitting at the table when Alison opened the kitchen door. "Everything okay?" She asked, looking up from the newspaper she was reading over her meal when Alison entered the room.

"Oh, just forgot my drink," Alison explained, pointing to the kitchen island where her glass of coke was sitting.

"Oh, right," Susan nodded, seeming to lose interest.

Alison crossed the room and picked up the glass. She wasn't sure if she should say anything else or just leave the room without speaking and he was still making up her mind on whether or not to throw in a second awkward "thanks for dinner" when Susan made the decision for her and struck up conversation as she was half ways across the room again.

"You know," she began, placing down her paper entirely and turning in her seat to look at Alison (it was going to be one of them conversations). "I've never really been able to thank you for what you done for Elizabeth."

"Oh?" (Holy fishsticks did she know they were dating or something because this really wasn't the first conversation she wanted to have with Beth's mother?!)

"Yes, she's been a lot… happier since she moved here, and since she met you in particular," she nodded.

"Oh well you know…" Alison began (okay wait really, did she know they were dating or…?).

"I'm just really glad she's met some good friends here that care about her." (Friends. She said friends, which meant she didn't know!). "Especially after everything that's happened." (Wait… what?).

"Um… I don't know what you mean?" Alison informed her politely (yet with a firm air of awkwardness), hoping that her tone made it clear that Beth hadn't told her whatever Susan was about to disclose, so you know, maybe she should stop talking.

"Well with her going off the rails a little." (Nope, nope, Susan Childs was definitely not the kind of woman to take a hint).

"Oh…" Alison felt the words hit her like a tonne of bricks. "I uh, I'm going to go eat my dinner," she managed dumbly, not wanting to get into this conversation at all and not really knowing how else to shut it down.

She turned sharp on her heel and practically fled from the kitchen before Susan had a chance to tell her anything else. She didn't make it far though. In fact she didn't even make it the entire way out the door before she collided with another body.

"Beth…" She gasped, taking a step back from her girlfriend.

"You were taking ages to get your drink…" Beth began to explain, though she was already backing away from Alison towards the stairs. "I thought I'd come see where you were."

"Beth… wait," Alison demanded, though Beth was already climbing the steps back towards her room and Alison had to run to catch up. "Beth please," she managed, sliding in her girlfriends bedroom door just before it slammed in her face. "I didn't… I didn't want her to tell me that."

"Doesn't matter," Beth shrugged, not quite looking Alison in the eye and instead sitting down on the edge of her bed and staring intently at her lap.

"Yes it does Beth," she pleaded, hunkering down in front of the other girl once she'd placed her glass safely out of the way. "Look at me?"

"No Ali it doesn't matter," Beth replied, never raising her eyes to the girl in front of her. "Because now you know so… whatever."

"It's not," Alison paused, realising 'a big deal' may not be the best way to finish that sentence. "What happened before we met doesn't matter to me," she told her instead, resting her hands on her girlfriend's knees.

"It does though," Beth insisted, her gaze switching to where Alison's thumbs ran in soothing motions across her knee caps. "Because I didn't want you to know…"

"Like ever?" Alison tried not to sound hurt.

"Yea," Beth nodded once and rolled her shoulders in a shrug.

"But… why?"

"Because of this…" Beth finally looked up to meet Alison's eye. "This right here… that look in your eye, like I'm fragile and broken… I wanted to avoid this," she inhaled deeply, trying to fight back the lump rising in her throat.

"I…" Alison faltered. "I don't think you're broken Beth, I think you're brave."

"How cliché," Beth snorted, though the laughter failed to reach her eyes.

"It's true though," Alison insisted, reaching out to hold Beth's hands and trying to conceal her wince when Beth pulled them away.

"You know what," Beth snapped, and she rose so fast from the mattress Alison stumbled back onto the floor. "I don't really want to talk to you about this," she exploded.

"Beth I…" Alison was still sitting on the floor.

"No Alison, I want you to leave," Beth demanded, her stare never mellowing even though her voice had returned to a normal pitch.

"Beth please, can we just tal-"

"Alison," Her voice was like ice and it was the first time Alison hadn't loved the way her name sounded on the other girls tongue.

She was defeated. She knew she was defeated. She could feel the hostility radiating from Beth even though they were now on opposite sides of the room. She picked herself up slowly, never breaking eye contact. She crossed the room and picked up her bag, her gaze never wavering as she silently pleaded with the other girl to no avail. She walked backwards towards the door, and only turned to reach for the handle when she realised the way Beth was looking at her wasn't going to change. Her fingers closed in around the cold metal and she froze for a second.

"I…" she stopped herself.

Now wasn't the time.

She left the room without another word.


	10. Chapter 10

Yay some Beth and Sarah bonding in this chapter (yes, they're totally my brotp).

-.-.-.-

Beth's alarm had come and gone. Usually she'd have been up hours ago for her jog, and by now she'd probably be in the shower, feeling her muscles relax again under the hot jets of water. Not today though. Maybe not ever again. She just wanted to lie in bed and stare at her plain white ceiling and never move, or speak, or eat.

She closed her eyes and pictured the pill bottle in the back of the cabinet in the main bathroom. Sitting behind the spare conditioner, unopened for weeks now. She remembered the hollow feeling in her chest last time she rolled two blue pills out of the container and into her clammy palm. She remembered how at first she'd just forgotten to take them because the feeling that usually reminded her she needed them hadn't been there. She remembered how soon the feeling had been gone entirely and instead it was replaced by brightness; like sunshine, only pinker.

Now she lay in bed and she could feel that emptiness claw at her chest, eating away at the sunlight. She closed her eyes, willing herself to sleep again when all of a sudden –

"What the fuck?" Her eyes shot open and she sat bolt upright on her mattress.

A second later more banging against her bedroom door. She slid her feet out from under the blankets and watched as the door shook. It was nine in the morning, who the hell –

"Childs? Open up!" Sarah's voice called through the wood.

"What the fuck," Beth repeated; running across her room and yanking her door open before Sarah broke a hole in it. "The hell Manning?" She snapped then as Sarah stood smirking in the hall with Beth's mother standing perplexed behind her.

"What, no hello?" Sarah teased, stepping into Beth's room without invitation.

"Are you two going to be okay?" Beth's mother asked, looking more at her daughter for an answer than the mystery girl that'd just barged through her front door.

Beth was tempted to say no, she really was, though she knew exactly how Sarah would react to that. "Yea," she nodded instead. "This is Sarah Manning…"

"Oh," Susan seemed a lot more at ease now that she knew who the intruder was, though no less confused. "I'll leave you girls to it then," she smiled, turning to leave as Beth closed the door.

"Sarah," Beth turned with a sigh, not really up for whatever nonsense was about to unfold. "Whatever it is, I'm kind of having a shitty day and…"

"Don't be stupid," Sarah brushed off. "Day's still young Bethany, could turn around."

"Don't call me that," Beth snapped out of instinct. "And no, I really don't think it will," she added.

"God, you and Alison have one fight and suddenly the world's falling apart," Sarah huffed, throwing herself back into Beth's mattress.

"Well yea actually… wait," Beth slowly processed what her friend had said. "How do you know that?" She felt fear prick in her chest when she realised must have Alison told everyone.

"Alison turned up at Fee's last night in hysterics," Sarah explained, and Beth instantly felt that fear subside into guilt. "And well, you know Felix, can't keep his gob shut about his own problems, never mind anyone else's," she shrugged.

"And what… what did she say?" Beth asked hesitantly.

"Just that she thought she'd fucked up… well 'effed' up," Sarah corrected using melodramatic air quotations. "Though don't worry, she wouldn't say why."

"Oh…" Beth crossed the room and sat next to Sarah on the bed. "Where is she now?" She asked quietly, feeling ashamed more than anything that she'd even consider for a second that Alison would tell anyone else what had happened.

"Felix took her shopping with him and Cos," Sarah explained. "He thought some retail therapy might do the trick."

-.-.-.-

"So anyway, then he asked if he could see me tomorrow evening…" Felix was going a mile a minute while they browsed the rails of Forever 21.

"Wait, which one's this?" Cosima asked idly as she pulled an Aztec print skirt out of the sale section.

"This is Colin, god keep up," Felix huffed. "Anyway, I felt bad giving him a flat no because I've not seen him in a few weeks, though I couldn't say yes because I'm going out with Ramon tomorrow, so now I have to come up with an excuse, cos I can't just tell him I have another date… can I?"

"Not really no," Cosima hummed in agreement, placing the skirt back when she noticed the missing zipper (she knew it was too good to be true).

"Exactly, so I was thinking of telling him I was ill? Though then I realised what if I want to see him Tuesday or Wednesday?" Felix sighed in exasperation. "I mean he's not going to want to do anything if he thinks I have the plague or something and that just wouldn't work."

"Tell him you have to study?" Cosima offered, turning her attention to the rail to her left now.

"Oh god no, it has to be realistic, we're not all geeks," Felix looked almost disgusted at the thought. "No I was thinking more along the lines of…"

Alison stood back a bit from her two friends staring between them in disbelief. Did they always talk about relationships this much, or was this just some twisted way of rubbing salt in her wounds? She pinched her brow and exhaled slowly through her nose. This was going to be a very, very long day.

-.-.-.-

"Oh," Beth nodded. "She's probably having fun then."

"Can't say the same for you," Sarah replied, giving her friend a sceptical once over.

"I think I really fucked up," Beth replied after a moment.

"Wanna talk about it?" Sarah questioned hesitantly – she wasn't really the kind of person to get mushy and emotional, but she'd sure as hell go there if that's what this called for.

"No, not with you anyway." Beth smiled weakly at Sarah when she spoke.

"Oi, I can be a shoulder to cry on too ya know," Sarah huffed.

"You'd probably take pictures and use them as blackmail."

"Yea, but only once this whole thing blows over… I'd never blackmail you when you're feeling so bummed out," Sarah reasoned, and Beth couldn't help but crack a smile.

"Well you could be waiting a while…" Beth sighed, running a hand through her hair.

"It can't be that bad," Sarah countered. "Whatever happened it can't be that bad… you guys will make up."

"I was a real dick though Sarah," Beth could feel that lump in her throat again, and willed herself not to cry. "I was like, the queen of dicks."

"Which is quite something for a lesbian," Sarah teased, trying to ease the tension she could feel building in the air around them.

"I'm not a-"

"I know, I know, you're bi or whatever; I get this spiel enough from Cosima, and Jesus don't even get me started on Delphine's spectrum theory," Sarah cut her off quickly. "Just tell me what happened yeah?" She prompted. "You don't even have to say what the fight was about… just open up a little Childs."

"I… we…" Beth trailed off and took a breath (open up, she could do that, she could open up). "She found out something about me and I was mad at her for knowing it… but then she only made it worse by trying to talk about it and I dunno… I snapped."

"Would this thing be the same thing that has you skipping out of school the second the final bell goes on Tuesdays, and the same thing that has your mother acting like you're going to go crazy any second?" Sarah questioned.

"Uh… yea."

Sarah nodded, and allowed herself time to mull over everything in her head before she spoke again. "Alison's special you know…" she said finally.

"You think I don't know that?" Beth murmured resentfully.

"Obviously not," Sarah remarked offhandedly.

"Look Sarah," Beth could feel anger bubbling inside her, and she stood abruptly from the bed. "If you've just come here to give out and this is your backhanded way of doing it I don't need-"

"When have I ever been backhanded about anything Bethany," Sarah interrupted, staring up at her friend with a bemused look. "If I'd come here to shout you and everyone else in this neighbourhood would know about it, trust me."

"Well then why are you here," Beth sighed, her shoulders dropping in defeat.

"To tell you Alison's special," Sarah repeated slowly. "And," she continued when Beth didn't snap at her. "To tell you that when Felix was twelve and he realised he was gay, it was Alison he told first, not me, his best friend since he was eight, Alison. And when Cosima realised she liked girls it was Alison that held her when she cried, and it was also Alison she went to for advice when she realised she had a major crush on Delphine. And to tell you that when I thought I was pregnant when I was sixteen it was Alison's doorstep I went to with a shopping bag full of pregnancy tests, and it was her that sat up with me all night, even though she had a big test the next morning, because I was too afraid to pee on one."

"Why're you-"

"Because Alison's special," Sarah repeated for the third time. "And whatever it is that you don't want to talk to anyone about, you can talk to Alison about it, because she will be there for you, just like she's there for everyone."

"What if I'm scared to?" Beth countered, half challenging Sarah, half hoping she'd get an honest reply.

"Elizabeth Bethany Childs," Sarah began sternly.

"That's not my middle name either," Beth groaned, though she knew Sarah was ignoring her.

"If you're afraid to open your heart up to Alison Hendrix in case she like pushes you away or some shit then you need to get the fuck over yourself, yeah?" Beth wanted to say something back at this, though Sarah didn't give her a chance to butt in. "You're the best thing that's ever happened to Ali, and now granted I didn't know you before you knew her, but I'm willing to bet Alison's the best thing that's happened to you too?"

"Yea," Beth nodded dumbly, finally sitting back down on the bed again.

"Well then there yah go ya silly tit," Sarah laughed, nudging Beth's shoulder with her own. "You just gotta like take the leap or whatever, and trust that no matter what shit you have going on Alison'll try her best to help, yeah?"

"Yea," Beth nodded again, realising that probably for the first time ever Sarah Manning was right about something.

"And you know… if she's not enough you've got five other people that are here for you too," Sarah mumbled. "Just don't get any ideas about making-out with us," she added, trying to balance out the soppiness.

"Sarah if ever there's a day I make a pass at you, just know I was probably forced at gunpoint," Beth chuckled.

"You're just jealous cos you couldn't get with this," Sarah mocked.

"Shut up, dipshit," Beth snorted, now full on smiling as her friend ran her hands up and down her sides trying to be sexy.

"Whatever you big lesbo," Sarah laughed, her tongue jutting out between her teeth. "Just promise me you'll talk to her?"

"Thought she was out with Felix and Cosima?" Beth reminded her.

"Yea but not for-fuckin'-ever." Sarah rolled her eyes. "They're gonna be back by one or two, cos Cosima and Delphine are going to some foreign film bullshit."

"You mean Alison's out for the morning with two people that're more than likely gonna be talking about their love live?" Beth dead panned, torn between feeling guilty and being amused by the situation.

"Best thing for her," Sarah shrugged, seeming not to notice the extraordinary flaw in her un-extraordinary plan.

-.-.-.-

"So yea, it's this like totally independent French film," Cosima was explaining, hands going a mile a minute even though she was behind the closed changing room door. "Like completely neo-realist and all that jazz, but it's also in this like really cute old cinema, you know the one down town, ow," she paused when her hand ricochet off the side mirror.

"The one they were thinking of closing a few years ago?" Felix nodded thoughtfully; sitting cross legged on the bench outside with Alison silent by his side.

"Yea, yea, yea that's the one. I mean it's been there since like the twenties and it's got all that old style décor and architecture so I mean it'd be totally romantic, you know?"

"Plus you know, cinema is an ideal place for making out," Felix added, knowing all too well that for all Cosima's brains she wasn't one to be into neo-realist French cinema – she was more of a documentaries girl (which always ended up being mind-numbingly boring when it was her turn to pick films to watch).

"Yea… well duh," Cosima agreed. "Though you know I kinda want this to be like a proper date, you know? Like we've not really gone on a proper date and it'd totally suck balls if when she goes back home for the summer and her folks ask her what Canada was like all she can talk about is like school and hanging out with us."

"I dunno, pretty sure she could describe the ceiling of your bedroom in vivid detail," Felix teased.

"Holy watershed dude, we totally need to get you laid, this drought's making you fantasize about lesbian sex," Cosima sniggered as she pulled her head into a top.

It had only been an hour and already Alison wanted to bury her head in her hands and find a way to put her friends on mute for the rest of the morning.

-.-.-.-

"Just promise me you'll talk to her, yeah?"

"Yea, of course," Beth nodded, her lips quirking into a barely there smile. "You'd only hunt me down if I didn't."

"Glad we're on the same page," Sarah smirked. "Now that we've got this sorted though, get me some food and bring me to your Xbox."

"Excuse me?" Beth dead panned.

"You heard me Childs, I walked all the way here to have this bloody heart to heart, the least you can do is feed me and let me kick your ass at some Halo."

"I didn't ask you to," Beth fought.

"But aren't ya glad I did?" Sarah smiled sweetly.

Beth rolled her eyes. "You want a bacon roll?" She offered finally.

"Eggs too if you have 'em," Sarah nodded, looking now like she'd never seen food before.

"I'm starting to get the feeling you only came here so you wouldn't have to make your own breakfast."

"What can I say… Mrs S claims I'm old enough to pour cereal and milk without serious injury… I disagree," Sarah shrugged, and Beth couldn't help but laugh.


	11. Chapter 11

Our ship is leaving choppy waters. Also just know I had fun fucking with expectations in this chapter.

-.-.-.-

Alison was polite enough to wait until her friends were out of sight before releasing the defeated sigh that had been building in her chest all morning. She loved her friends, she really did, but holy molly they were the worst people in the world to turn to for comfort.

"Relationships," Alison muttered, shaking her head as she turned off the main road where Cosima had dropped her and began walking up the sidewalk of her cul de sac. "I mess things up with Beth and they spend the day talking about their relationships." Saying it out loud made her realise that there was quite possibly a reason she'd avoided going to them for emotional advice in the past.

She had to admit this time was different though. When she'd turned up on Felix's doorstep late yesterday evening it had been different than the time she'd sat her friends down and told them about her mother's drinking, or different than the time she'd admitted to Sarah and Felix that she'd made out with Chad behind the supply shed next to the football field, and now she was afraid Aynsley was going to find out.

Every other time she'd felt scared, or even venerable when it came to opening up, even though she knew her friends were the only people in the world she could trust not to judge. She'd been scared this time too of course while she sat at the edge of Felix's bed and sobbed incoherently. It had been a different kind of sadness though; the kind that made her feel like she was losing a part of herself and the kind that made her think she'd never be able to stop crying. It had been the type of sadness that had consumed her, even after Felix tried to insist that couples fight all the time ("or so I've heard").

By the time she reached her front door she felt like she was going to cry all over again. Cosima had told her she was probably suffering from a severe case of a broken heart, and the dull ache she felt in her chest when she pushed open her front door certainly seemed to confirm her theory. She made a bee-line from the stairs hoping to take refuge in her room before the tears fell, though her mother stopped her in her tracks.

"Alison honey." She didn't seem angry, and even though Alison knew this meant she'd already bought alcohol to replace the wine she'd stolen, she couldn't help but feel mildly relieved, knowing it was one less thing to deal with. "One of your friends is up in your room."

"What?"

"They've been up there for about an hour or so now… said they wanted to talk to you about something important," her mother informed her with a shrug.

"Right… thank you," Alison nodded curtly, turning to face the stairs and whoever had come to see her.

"Oh and honey, I'm going to your grandmothers for the night," she added just as Alison went to leave. "I'll not be back until tomorrow, and your father's still on that office retreat so I left money for take-out."

"Oh… okay," Alison nodded, ignoring the fact that her grandmother had become a synonym for the nearest bar.

Then her mother was gone and Alison took off towards the stairs; taking each step two at a time and practically jogging down the hall to her room. She knew it wasn't Cosima or Felix, and she highly doubted it was Sarah, Cal or Delphine either leaving only one option. She stalled once she reached her door, a ridiculous part of her deciding it was important to fix her windswept appearance as best she could before entering the room to face the music. She'd thought all day about what she'd say to Beth when she saw her next, though of all the thinks she'd considered saying what came out of her mouth was not one of them.

"Donnie?" (What in the name of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat was going on?)

"A-Alison!" He stammered, standing abruptly and extending his hand before thinking better of it and letting it fall back down to his side. "Alison, hi."

"Donnie… what are you doing in my house?" She questioned slowly, taking a cautious step towards him (had Cosima slipped something into her drink earlier, like really, what the heck on a handle was going on?).

"I uh… I want to ask you something… something important," he explained awkwardly.

"Donnie I really don't have time for this," Alison sighed, pinching her brow and wishing he'd evaporate into thin air.

"I know it's probably an inconvenient time," Donnie apologised hurriedly, obviously wanting to ask the question as quickly as possible – like ripping off a band-aid. "But uh I just wanted to know if um… you'd go to prom with me?"

"Prom?" Alison sounded like she'd never heard the word in her life. "Prom… Donnie I'm…" But she paused, realising that for a start her and Beth's relationship hadn't been common knowledge and that secondly it wasn't exactly on the best of terms right now. "Donnie I can't," she settled on finally, her voice firm and final.

"Why not?"

"I have another date," Alison shrugged, even though her and Beth had never talked about going together, and again, even if they had now wasn't the best time to be talking about it as if it were a sure thing.

"With who?" Donnie pushed indignantly. "You don't have a boyfriend!"

"How observant," Alison snapped, her patients wearing thin. "Now you've got our answer, and as I've said already I don't have time for this," she explained briskly, motioning towards the door for him to leave.

He took the hint and trudged out of her room and down the stairs, not speaking again until they were at Alison's front door. "You could at least tell me why you don't want to go with me?" He tried while Alison moved past him to open the door.

"It's complicated," Alison told him, her voice verging on patronising as she pushed down her door handle. "And if that isn't answer enough for you Donnie then all I can say is… Beth!" Alison immediately forgot about the annoyance behind her when she found herself standing face to face with the very person making her prom situation so complicated.

"Ali…" the track star nodded, smiling awkwardly at her girlfriend. "… Donnie?" She added after a moment, her forehead creasing when she caught sight of the man standing behind Alison's petite frame.

"Come in." Alison didn't mean to sound as breathless as she had, and she cleared her throat when she stepped aside to allow the brunette past her.

"If now's not a good time then how come…" Donnie began, though he was shut off almost instantly by a hard glare from Alison.

"Weren't you leaving?" She snapped, not even bothering to veil her words in years of taught politeness.

"Uh yea… yea," Donnie nodded, moving past Alison and out the door. "It's a definite no then?" He tried one last time.

"Yes, definitely," Alison nodded firmly before shutting the door in his face with a satisfying snap.

Beth was staring curiously at her when she turned around. "Should I ask?" There was a hint of a grin in her voice when she spoke.

"Best not, no," Alison returned, shaking her head and smiling briefly. "Can I ask why you're here though?"

"Yea but uh… can we you know, talk somewhere that's not your hall?" Beth suggested, sighing inwardly in relief when Alison didn't shut down the suggestion – instead pointing them towards her room.

"Well?" Alison prompted once she'd shut her bedroom door behind her, watching Beth cross the floor to sit awkwardly at the edge of her bed.

Beth took a deep calming breath and "open up a little Childs" ran through her head like a broken record.

(Damn Sarah and her decent advice.)

"When I started highschool, my best friend Jennifer died of uh… like a lung disease," Beth began, looking anywhere but at Alison as she finally unloaded the weight from her chest. "We'd been best friends since we were like six… so starting highschool… I dunno, I suppose I just sorta felt alone?" She offered up with a shrug, still not searching out Alison's face to try and read her expression. "By the time I was in tenth grade everything was just way too much… I was lonely and I still missed Jennifer like crazy but I had no one to talk to and I guess I just lost myself."

She felt the bed beside her shift when Alison's weight came down next to her and in her peripheral vision she saw a hand slide onto her thigh and squeeze gently, prompting her to continue.

"I started doing the whole teenage rebellion thing, you know, my Sarah Manning phase," Beth joked, the ghost of a smile shadowing her face. "But I dunno it's hard to explain, nothing ever made me feel… good I guess? You know, like no matter how much I was smiling, or laughing, or no matter how many dangerous situations I got myself into nothing ever…" she trailed off into a shrug when she failed to find words to define the feeling.

"There was always something missing?" Alison suggested quietly.

"Yea… kinda," Beth nodded sadly. "There was always just something missing."

"And now?" Alison prompted hesitantly, not wanting Beth to reveal more than she was ready to, especially after their argument.

"Well in eleventh grade my mom finally realised what was up and I started therapy. It was totally fucking useless at first, though after a few months I started to figure out why I was feeling the way I was feeling and after that stuff started to get easier… still though, mom thought it'd be a good idea to move here to, y'know, get away from the bad memories and all that." She finally turned to face Alison. "And then I met you and you loved me and you introduced me to your friends and they loved me and I just… I thought if you ever found out then you'd see me differently, or that things would change?"

"Elizabeth Childs," Alison whispered, her voice calm but strong when she reached out to grasp both Beth's hands in her own. "Nothing, and I mean nothing, you ever say to me will change the fact that I am in love with you, I swear… and even though this never has to go any further than this room, if you ever do choose to open up to any of our friends about any of this it'll never change how they feel about you either," she promised, and her eyes were so sincere that Beth couldn't help but believe her.

"You know… I really thought I'd fucked things up so badly," Beth admitted when she felt the silence was becoming too pregnant.

"I just thought…" Alison paused, unsure of whether or not she should be honest.

"What?" Beth prompted. "I don't care if you thought I was an asshole, it won't hurt my feelings if it's true," she only half joked.

"This might sound stupid," Alison sighed. "But from the very first time I saw you I felt… drawn towards you. I mean I can't describe it, I just know it's been there the whole time I've known you and I always figured you were like my soulmate," she murmured the last word – it had never been a concept she'd believed in before now. "So when you kicked me out and wouldn't open up I thought maybe… I thought I might have been reading too far into everything, and it was just some silly highschool thing?"

"I don't know about soulmates Ali," Beth smiled, continuing quickly when Alison's grin faltered. "But I know that something made me want you to be the one to help me catch up in English, and I know I've never felt as alive around someone as I feel when I'm around you." Now Beth was blushing though she didn't care when a smile crept back across Alison's features. "So no, I don't think it's one of those shitty highschool romances that end when I cheat on you with a jock, or when you get accepted to some fancy college on the other side of the country… I think it's the real deal, because I'm pretty sure I'm in love with you."

"So this was just our first fight then?" Alison sounded a lot less nervous now, even allowing a small bubble of laughter to rise up from her chest.

"Yea, I'm pretty sure it was," Beth nodded in agreement, chuckling lightly at the relief and adoration she could see reflected in Alison's eyes. "At least we got the big stuff out of the way right off the bat though," she added.

"That is true," Alison agreed. "Though this is one more pretty big question I still need to ask you," she added, her tone turning serious again.

"What?" Beth prompted, shifting uncomfortably at the tone of Alison's voice.

"You want to be my date to prom?"


	12. Chapter 12

This chapter is rated M by the way because you know... Beth and Alison make up.

-.-.-.-

Prom?

Prom?

Prom hadn't at all been what Beth was expecting.

"Prom?" She repeated dumbly, letting the words roll over in her head before a spark of realisation ignited in her mind. "Oh my god that's what Donnie was asking you, wasn't it?"

"It might have been," Alison huffed, not at all pleased by the way Beth doubled over in silent laughter.

"Oh my god what did you say," she wheezed; trying her best to fight off the laughter brewing in her chest.

"I said the same thing I'll be saying to you if you don't give me an answer," (asking your girlfriend to prom was meant to be cute, and romantic, not a conversation about a boy that had been obsessed with you since third grade).

"You asked me!" Beth protested. "You can't turn me down when I say yes!"

"I can if you don't hurry up," Alison countered, crossing her arms over her chest indignantly.

"Fine then, I guess I'll get back to you," Beth replied, hiding her grin behind a casual shrug.

"Excuse me," Alison challenged, quirking her eyebrow.

"Well you're not my only option Alison," Beth teased. "I mean there's Art and Paul… and that Raj guy in my geometry class is totally going to ask any day now," she explained casually, the furious gleam in Alison's eye only spurring her on.

"Art and Paul asked you to prom?" Alison's jaw dropped.

"Well, they've both brought it up as a kind of half joke…" She shrugged again, relishing the way a simple roll of her shoulders visibly boiled her girlfriends blood. "Don't worry though, I told them I couldn't," she added, her voice suddenly sincere.

"Oh? Already going with Angie or something?" Alison snapped (she knew deep down it was a joke, but dammit, a yes or a no would have sufficed).

"No, I just told them that I was hoping I'd be lucky enough to go with the hottest girl I knew." Alison was half expecting her to say Sarah or Cosima just to really raise her blood pressure, though the track start took her by surprise when instead she pushed Alison back until her head hit the pillow behind her, and crawled up into her lap. "So y'know, if the offer's still there, I'd love to go to prom with you," she whispered, her voice low and throaty as she hovered over Alison's petite frame.

Alison simply nodded, a delighted smile engulfing her features before it was swallowed up by a warm kiss from the lips above her. It had barely been twenty-four hours and yet Alison was shocked by just how much she'd missed the all too familiar lips moving perfectly against her own; the way they dipped hungrily and the way soft tongue traced across her bottom lip until she allowed it access to her mouth.

She was infatuated by the way Beth's tongue tenderly lapped up her moans and whimpers. She was even more enamoured when the same tongue licked its way across her jaw and towards her ear, her lips curling softly around the lobe and sucking lightly until a satisfied groan bubbled up through Alison's chest.

Her hands moved instinctually to Beth's back, running up and down the taught muscular surface over the material of her loose grey jumper, imagining how it would feel to count each rivet of her spine and feel each lean muscular shoulder without the cotton material between her fingers and bare flesh. She'd always stopped herself from finding out though, afraid of one missing garment leading to two missing garments and eventually leading to nakedness and everything that came with it.

She'd always been afraid that if she got a taste of what Beth's creamy flesh felt like pushed against her own she'd never be able to stop herself – now however, she found that fear melting away as her hands ran down her girlfriends back, and confident fingers tugged at the hem of her jumper.

"Ali no," Beth whispered breathlessly, pulling her lips away from her girlfriend to speak. "I've only got a bra on under this and…" she caught the look in Alison's eye, and realised that for once she may not need to hold back. "Unless… you want to?"

"I want to Beth," she whispered, her own voice small but sure. "I want to feel you."

Beth nodded, fighting back the prepubescent urge to groan out the words "holy shit that's hot". Instead she sat back just enough to steady herself and lifted her arms above her head, allowing Alison to pull her jumper off while she silently thanked god that she'd shaved.

Alison let the top fall off the edge of the bed and then lay back against her pillow, her eyes absorbing every detail she could and committing it to memory. Sure she'd felt beneath Beth's top before, but there was an entire world of difference between feeling the taught plains of her stomach and actually seeing them, moving in and out with each breath. Slowly her hand extended from her side and it traced across each faint ab, nails scratching softly at the skin that seemed to expand for miles in front of her.

To Beth's credit she sat there, barely even blushing when Alison's two hands moved up, one on each side, across her ribs, counting each bump and dip as she went. They bypassed her breasts completely for now, instead skimming up the side of the plain black bra and to her collarbones, which her fingers traced across before moving finally to her strong muscular shoulders and down her arms until finally she grasped both Beth's hands in her own.

"You're beautiful Elizabeth," she whispered, her voice awestruck. "I mean it; you're the most beautiful human I've ever met."

Usually this would be about the time Beth would make a dumb joke or brush off the compliment, though for once something stopped her and instead she swooped down, recapturing Alison's lips. This time when Alison's hand found its way to her back she felt it exploring; seeking out every groove, ever lump and bump, stilling over each moving muscle and feeling how it pulled and twisted.

Eventually Alison broke the kiss, looking deep into Beth's clouded eyes. "Take my top off," her demand was soft yet powerful, and Beth only looked at her for a moment longer before complying.

She was gentle. She waited until Alison repositioned herself so she was sitting before her fingers curled delicately around the hem of the top. She never broke eye contact as she rolled it up slowly over Alison's belly and pastel pink bra. When she pulled it off over Alison's head she didn't instantly look down; instead she smiled softly at the girl next to her, reaching out a hand to fix her mused bangs back into place.

"Perfect," she murmured once they were perfectly straight against Alison's forehead and Alison grinned, the last remaining trace of nerves being wiped off her face.

Then Alison lay back against the mattress and Beth's hands ran up the plains of her stomach and across her sides, falling into the dips of her waist and over the slight jut of her hips, all the while her eyes following with a growing fascination.

When her hands reached the wire seam of Alison's bra her fingers stilled and for the first time she looked away from her torso and back to Alison, wanting so desperately to slip her hand beneath the cotton and elastic material, though a larger and more coherent part of her mind told her not to; at least until she got permission first. Alison didn't speak though, she didn't even nod; instead she arched her back high off the bed and wound one hand round to her back to unclasp her bra. Then she lowered herself back against the clean linen and watched Beth stretched her arms out tenderly to brush the straps off her shoulders, letting them slide down her arms before giving the garment a final tug and casting it aside on the floor.

Alison was flawless, lying beneath her chest heaving, and even when Beth reached forward to cup one of her girlfriends breasts in her hand she almost didn't want to break the beauty of the moment unfolding in front of her – Alison's eyes wide and vulnerable, her face soft and ready and her upper body completely void of any of the layers of modesty she usually kept herself wrapped in.

She didn't have much time to revel in the feeling of the soft mounds of skin or the beauty of the woman beneath her though; Alison had other ideas. A sudden desire to dominate swept through her and she slid her hand up the small of Beth's back towards her bra clasp, unhooking it without difficulty and discarding it next to her own. Then her palms slid down the track star's shoulders, over her collarbones, landing finally around her breasts.

She wanted to feel every part of Beth arch against her, and hear ever sound possible for the other girl to make in the throes of passion. She was suddenly struck by jealousy that she wouldn't be the first person to experience the sounds and catalogue them away with a small note on how to re-create them; it only made her more determine though, determine to hear them better than anyone else, and to find new ones, ones that Beth didn't even know she made.

She pushed her final shred of fear to one side and simultaneously rolled over, leaving Beth pinned beneath her. She captured her girlfriend's bottom lip between her teeth and tugged lightly, with one hand supporting her weight and the other moving between their two bodies to the zip of Beth's jeans. Her fingers slid on the silver button, and she fumbled a few times (so much for graceful ease) before eventually sighing in frustration, feeling Beth snigger against her mouth.

"Stop that," she hissed, her words caught up in the back of Beth's throat as she dragged her teeth off the track star's lower lip. "Stop laughing."

"Sorry," Beth whispered not seeming at all apologetic. "Want me to get it?" She offered, her hand unravelling from Alison's hair to help the cause.

"No," Alison huffed, slapping the hand away and sitting back so she could take a look at the apparent padlock. "I'm perfectly capable of unbuttoning jeans Beth," she insisted roughly.

"You sure?" Beth teased, watching as both Alison's hands set to work proving her point.

"Shush, you're ruining the moment," Alison snapped, finally managing to pop the button and push down the zip. "Ha!"

"You're so fucking cute," Beth grinned, watching the triumph grow across Alison's face. "C'mere," she murmured then, pulling Alison down by the arm while she lifted her head off the pillow, their lips meeting in the middle, brushing together in long languid motions.

Their kiss built gradually until Alison slipped her lips away and sat up, garnering a confused moan from Beth. "Why'd you stop?" she huffed, looking deeply offended by the action.

Alison only smirked, and lifted herself off Beth's hips, her fingers curling into the waistband of her jeans.

She tugged lightly and Beth got the hint. "Oh." She lifted her ass off the bed to accommodate Alison's tugging, and a second later she found herself completely naked (save her ankle socks which she thought for the briefest of seconds must look pretty dumb right now).

"Trust me, I don't plan on stopping." She repositioned herself as she spoke, lying herself out next to Beth with one hand resting just above her knee and the other one finding Beth's where their fingers entwined and Beth gave her palm a reassuring squeeze.

Then she looked down into Beth's eye and smiled lovingly. Her fingers trailed carefully up the track stars muscular thigh, and she watched every micro-expression on Beth's face as she neared her destination.

She gasped when her fingers finally made contact with Beth's wet core. It was just so…

"Wow," Alison breathed, then blushed furiously when Beth looked at her confused. "You're uh... you're really wet," she mumbled by means of explanation.

"I'm aware." Beth managed to sound sarcastic even though Alison's fingers tried their best to distract her. "You tend to have that affect Ali."

Alison smiled, and swooped down to capture her lips in a hungry kiss, while she tried to figure out what was best to do with the hand between her girlfriends legs.

She'd never really done this before, and could only remember touching herself a grand total of twice (well, three times… kinda, if she counted that one time with the shower head). She'd heard about what to do though, having been unfortunate enough to overhear a conversation between Cosima and Delphine when the blonde had gone back to France to see her parents over Christmas.

She couldn't be doing too badly though. She could feel Beth react each time she pressed a finger against her and rotated it in a small circle – the groan that vibrated off the back of Alison's throat, and the way her hips rose off the bed to meet her touch telling her she was doing fine. With each delicate stroke of her fingers she felt her confidence grow, daring her to move her in wider and more forcefully motions as Beth's hips rucked off the bed encouraging her without words.

Eventually she grew curious, feeling she'd learned all there was to know about the mews of pleasure that rose up from Beth's chest when she traced imagined her imaginary patterns; so she moved lower. She was still cautious though, and pulled her lips away from Beth just to see the other girl nod furiously and silently, begging her to push her fingers those final few centimetres to where she wanted them most.

Alison obliged without a second thought, feeling an odd kind of energy when she pushed passed the clenching muscle and curled her fingers against Beth's wall. She watched as Beth's body spasmed towards her and she felt the heat between her own legs begin to burn furiously through her underwear.

"Oh…" the way the noise fell from Beth's lips was something like a growl and whimper all at once and Alison wanted her to never stop making that noise.

She pulled her fingers out slowly then pushed back in, feeling the way Beth's fingers squeezed around her hand harder with each thrust, mimicking the way her muscles clenched tighter and tighter around the fingers being pushed inside her.

Beth came undone all at once and as her body seized up Alison swore the image to memory – the way her eyes squeezed shut, the way her hips froze mid-air then slumped down against the mattress, the way her lips parted a fraction of an inch and it was Alison's name that rolled off her tongue.

"Oh my god," Beth rasped, finally regaining her senses and opening her eyes to look at the girl lying next to her hopefully. "Oh my god," she repeated, a smile splitting her face.

"Really?" Alison felt a weight lifted from her shoulders.

"Really Ali," Beth nodded enthusiastically, reaching out a shaky hand to cup her cheek. "Like, really, really." She emphasised her point by pulling her girlfriend down and into a warm kiss. "You wanna uh…" She paused and pulled her lips away, looking hard into Alison's eyes.

Alison nodded, not needing Beth to finish her sentence to know what the question would be. "I'm scared though," she told her, sounding every inch as nervous as she suddenly felt.

"I promise I'll be gentle," Beth whispered, one hand trailing down the side of Alison's chest and across the flat of her stomach towards her jeans. "Just tell me if you want me to stop, kay?"

She unbuttoned her jeans and slowly and pushed them down until Alison kicked them off at her ankles. She didn't go near her underwear, wanting to leave that barrier there for her girlfriend's sake. Instead she positioned herself with one leg between Alison's and slowly pushed up, feeling the moisture against her thigh.

"You're wet," she commented with a proud smirk (holy shit, I made someone this turned on). "You're really wet," she added for emphasis, rolling her thigh against Alison again and watching a breathy moan unravel from the girl beneath her.

Alison nodded, though she didn't really comprehend what Beth was saying. She hadn't been sure before, but she was so ready for this, so, so ready for this, and she pushed her body down low on the bed until her ruined underwear grinded against Beth's thigh all over again.

Beth took this as encouragement, and extended two cautious fingers, dragging them up slowly over Alison's underwear and rubbing them against her clit. She did it again when Alison's hips bucked, tracing circles with her digits.

"Oh god… Beth." Alison's hands landed on the flat of Beth's back, and her nails left searing red swells in the track stars clear skin.

The pain only spurred Beth on though, and she moved Alison's underwear to one side, waiting for a second until she was sure the other girl wasn't going to protest the shift in pace before dragging her fingers down and positioning them at her entrance. She looked at the woman beneath her then, and was met by suddenly serious eyes.

"Will it hurt?" Alison's voice was small though surprisingly steady.

"It might." She could see Alison's gulp. "Though I'll stop if it does." Then she leaned in to capture Alison's lips in a strong kiss as she pushed a finger inside her, followed a moment later by a second.

She felt Alison gasp into her mouth and muscles clench around her fingers but she was never told to stop, never told it was too much. Instead Alison's head fell back against the pillow as she buckled down against her palm and Beth pushed in further.

It didn't take very long; each time she jerked her hips clumsily against Beth's fingers Beth could physically see her move closer and closer to the edge – her breaths becoming shakier and her movements more stilted.

The elated shriek of pleasure that ripped through Alison's chest when she climaxed was unlike any noise Beth had ever heard the girl make before. It was primal and unapologetic and it filled the room around them.

"That was…" Alison paused, taking a gasp of air into her lungs. "Incredible," the last part was broken by giddy laughter. "Like wow!"

Beth snorted, and rolled her weight off her girlfriend, instead pulling the blankets down around them and tucking them in while Alison grinned at her like a fool. "So I take it you like sex then?" Beth teased, curling herself into Alison's side.

"I certainly see what the fuss was all about," Alison nodded, turning her body so she lay nose to nose with Beth.

"What time's your mom home at?" Beth asked then, brushing her nose playfully against Alison's.

"Sometime tomorrow… why?" Alison's fingers traced shapes in Beth's side while she spoke.

"Because that means we're going to be able to order food later and hang out in your kitchen naked," Beth smirked, waggling a suggestive eyebrow.

"We will do no such thing!" Alison scolded. "I have dressing gowns and we will be putting them to use."

"You're no fun," Beth joked as her fingers brushed a stray strand of hair out of Alison's face.

"And yet you love me anyway," Alison hummed. "Plus it's a school night," she added as if to further deflate Beth's bubble.

"Public holiday," Beth murmured. "I win this round Hendrix."

"Oh, so it is," Alison agreed after a quick run through the mental calendar in her head. "I'll let you have it seeing as it works in my favour."

"How's that?" Beth teased. "I could have other plans."

"Yet you're going to drop them," Alison told her matter of factly. "Because my parents are both away for the night and I've just discovered how amazing sex is."

"Touché," Beth hummed in agreement, leaning in to capture Alison's lips.

-.-.-.-

"Did you ring for the pizza?" Beth called, padding out of Alison's downstairs bathroom, pink bathrobe secured firmly around her waist ("Alison no!" "What?" "It's pink, I'm not wearing pink." "Beth it's a colour not a disease, now put it on or I'm getting dressed.")

"Mhm," Alison hummed, greeting her in the kitchen doorway with two arms around her neck and a sweet kiss in her cheek. "Fifteen minutes."

"Wow," Beth mused, slowly pushing Alison back towards the kitchen counters. "I wonder how we could pass the time?"

"I'm not going to be able to walk straight tomorrow Beth," Alison groaned, though she didn't protest as she was pushed back unto the cool work surface, her own cream dressing gown bunching around her thighs.

"Yea and I'm not going to be able to wear backless tops for months," Beth argued back. "I mean seriously Ali I'm pretty sure you hit bone."

"Well now you know not to do that to my neck," Alison huffed, trying her best to conceal her blush (Beth's back was pretty torn up after all).

"What, you mean this?" Beth smirked, her lips closing in around Alison's pulse point before the other girl had a chance to protest.


	13. Chapter 13

Well... this is it, the final chapter guys. I considered stretching it one more because I don't like ending it on 13, but in the end I didn't. Anyway I hope you enjoy this, and enjoyed the entire story for that matter.

-.-.-.-

People tended to either love prom or loath it and Alison was one of those people so firmly rooted in the love side of things that she couldn't even be brought down by Sarah's insistent whining, or Beth's continual fidgeting.

That said however, Beth was starting to test her. "Stop that," she hissed for the third time since they'd sat down for dinner, slapping a hand away from Beth's face. "I will not have you chewing on them nails that I spent all yesterday evening painting… even if it is taking them a while to clear the dance floor."

"It took you an entire evening to paint her nails?" Sarah questioned, willing her voice to remain neutral even when a smirk cracked across her lips. "Sure you didn't uh… get distracted?" Her comment prompted Felix and Cosima to dissolve into laughter, and Alison glared around the table at each of them individually.

Of course Alison had thought it safe to confide in Felix about her and Beth having sex (or as she'd put it during their conversation "doing it, you know… _it_") and of course Felix had been so overwhelmed with the revelation he'd blurted it out to the entire group next time he'd caught sight of Beth and Alison holding hands during one of their get together.

In the long run the little revelation hadn't stacked up to much though. In the long run Alison and Beth were happy and soon to be debuting their relationship to the rest of the school when the music started and couples were invited to the floor to dance (because when better than the very last day they'd ever have to spend with the majority of these people).

The fact that Alison and Beth had gone with one another had gone largely unnoticed so far though, much to the pairs surprise, and Cosima's bemusement ("Oh sure the second I as much as look at Delphine and there's rumours flying about that I have the hots for her, but you two do the nasty for months and no one bats an eyelid." "M'amour… have you ever seen the way you look at me? I would guess it was quite apparent.")

Their below radar date was about to be blown out of the water however, and Cal was the first to notice. "Oh… this should be good."

"Huh, wha'?" Sarah looked up from where she'd been trying to fold her used napkin into the shape of a swan when her boyfriend nudged her, though there was no need to for him to fill her in on the details. "Oh shite, Fee, get your popcorn ready."

Gradually the entire group became clued in on the approaching trouble, leaving only Alison and Beth unaware that Donnie was manoeuvring clumsily around circular tables making a bee-line for theirs in the corner.

"Alison…" He huffed by means of greeting, and when Alison jumped the rest of the table ducked to hide the laughter on their faces.

"Donnie…" She turned slowly in her seat to face her classmate.

"Is it my hair you don't like?" He questioned immediately, crossing his arms bravely over his chest and ignoring the shriek of laughter that slipped through the fingers across Sarah's mouth.

"Doubt it's your hair dude," Tony, Felix's date for the evening, piped up when Alison failed to formulate an answer. "Probably a lot more to do with what's between your- oh fuck…" He finished awkwardly when Beth's heel sailed into his shin.

"Donnie… what are you talking about…?" Alison sighed; this wasn't the time or the place for him to be speaking in tongues.

"Well you…" He uncrossed his arms and began to gesture. "… You said you had a date…" He gestured some more and if Alison hadn't been so focused on how embarrassed she was she might have thought to be concerned for just how difficult Sarah was finding it to breath between fits of (not quite) silent laughter. "And you don't have a date… I mean what the hell Alison? Just…"

"Hey, hey, hey back off dude," Beth snapped suddenly, turning in her seat fully so she too was now facing Donnie.

"No!" He spluttered, shoving his index finger into the palm of his opposite hand to make a point. "I just…." He lowered his voice considerably so as not to attract attention from surrounding tables and Alison actually thought to thank him for saving her dignity before he continued. "I just want to know why you didn't pick me?"

"Okay…" Alison nodded and Donnie was so startled she hadn't lost her temper that he almost took a step back. "You want to know why I didn't go to prom with you and the answer is because I don't like you Donnie… and I know you may consider this cruel, but I have never liked you and I know you like me so if I had agreed to go as your friend it would have made things difficult."

"But…" He started until Alison did throw him the glare he'd been initially expecting.

"As well as that…" She continued slowly, almost daring him to interrupt her again. "I really do have a date." She smiled warmly and motioned to Beth on her left.

"Who, the mullet guy?" Donnie dead panned (surely his hair was better than that?).

"What?" Alison looked to Beth – hair tied up in a simple but elegant braided ponytail – then past her to Tony, now gaping awkwardly between her, Donnie and Felix. "God no, not him, her!" She pointed again, this time a lot more careful to hover her finger only inches from Beth's face.

"… Beth Childs…" Donnie looked at her as if she'd materialised in front of him just this second. "But like… as friends…?"

"This is so great…" Cosima whispered loudly, her elated grin faltering only slightly when Delphine smacked her on the arm to silence her.

"Actually…" Alison looked to Beth, who simply shrugged, then back to Donnie, pausing for a moment to mull everything over before finishing her sentence. "Not as friends…"

"Well… gal pals or whatever," he huffed, his denial becoming more insistent by the second.

"Is that what they're calling it these days," Cosima mused, turning away from the confrontation to face Delphine. "You know… you're the best pal I've ever had." Delphine only smiled and leaned in closer, whispering something in Cosima's ear that made the dreadlocked girl blush and everyone else feel like they were intruding on a private moment.

"Wait… so… you two." He motioned between Alison and Beth. "Are like them two…" He pointed to Cosima and Delphine.

"I mean neither of us are blonde…" Beth objected. "And I'd be a long time convincing Ali to get dreadlocks…"

"But yes," Alison cut in, slapping Beth on the knee to silence her teasing. "We are a couple."

Donnie stared for a moment, his mind obviously unable to wrap itself around what had just unfolded. "Lesbians…" He muttered eventually and before Alison or Beth could jump to correct him he was speaking again. "Are any of you straight?"

"Dude…" Cal motioned between himself and Sarah (who was now leaning against his shoulder wiping tears from her eyes).

"Whatever…" Donnie huffed, shrugging off his mistake and turning back to Alison. "You could have told me y'know, save my pride."

"Uh, don't mean to be an ass…" Tony interrupted again (fully intending on being an ass). "But I've known you all of like… two minutes? And I' already willing to hazard a guess that you don't have much pride to save…"

Donnie just gaped then and, realising no one was about to jump to his defence, he turned on the spot and wandered back towards his own table, still seeming shell shocked from the conversation he'd just had.

For a moment after there was silence, no one wanting to ruin the magic of the comedy they'd just experienced, though it wasn't long before the silence at the table was interrupted by Aynsley – the president of the prom committee – announcing over mic that the music was about to begin.

"C'mon…" Beth stood and tugged on Alison's hand when Chasing Cars started humming through the loudspeakers. "Let's go dance and forget about weird guys with crushes on you."

Alison smiled, rolled her eyes, and stood, her hand slipping into Beth's and their fingers entwining as she let the track star lead her out into the centre of the floor where a scatter of couples had already gathered. They took their positions (Alison leading because how on earth could she trust Beth not to mess up the steps) and fell into the rhythm of the music, swaying on the small spot they'd claimed for themselves and blocking out the other shapes that moved around them.

"This is nice…" Alison whispered, her forehead falling against Beth's when the song transitioned to She's Always A Woman To Me. "Being here with you… dancing…" She closed her eyes slowly and released a light sigh. "… I could stay like this forever."

Beth smiled, let her lips brush softly across Alison's. The moment was more than nice, it was perfect.


End file.
